Bombay HC asks team Anna to ‘protest from home’

The Bombay High Court (HC) has asked team Anna to carry on their protest from their homes after it did not accept the petition to intervene in the matter of allotment of MMRDA ground for three-day fast in Mumbai.

Team Anna has asked the court to direct the state authorities to provide MMRDA ground for free or at confessional rates for fast from December 27. The HC responded by telling the team to "sit and protest from your homes".

The court observed that it was not able to determine if the protest in in public interest or politically motivated and is thus not in a position to direct the state government in Maharashtra to allow the protest at Azad Maidan in the city.

The division bench of Justices P. B. Majumdar and Mridula Bhatkar said, “Under which law are you (petitioner) asking for exemption? It might be satyagraha for you, but for some other factions it might be a nuisance.”

Following the courts response to the petition, Anna Hazare said that he was not aware that his supporters had approached the court demanding the ground for protests. He added that the supporters are not experienced and if they had asked him before approaching the court, he would have advised them against it.