The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has ordered the maintenance of status quo on the removal of political flagpoles from public spaces, in a major relief to political parties, caste and community organisations across Tamil Nadu.
The decision comes as part of an appeal filed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) challenging a previous directive that mandated the removal of all political flagpoles from public areas.
The issue was taken up by a three-judge bench comprising Justices SM Subramaniam, Vijayakumar, and Soundar. The CPI(M), through its state secretary Shanmugam, argued that flagpoles had been set up across Tamil Nadu for over six decades as part of the party's outreach to the people and to symbolically represent its ideology.
The party claimed that local officials were removing flagpoles across districts, in some cases without any prior notice, which they argued was a violation of their rights.
The court acknowledged that the previous order was issued without hearing the views of political parties, which formed the crux of the argument. The judges questioned the government on its stance, even asking whether only flagpoles were obstructions while statues in public spaces were not.
The Bench has now invited political parties and organisations wishing to intervene in the matter to file impleading petitions by August 5, beyond which no further petitions would be accepted.
The Tamil Nadu government has also been directed to issue public notices in two Tamil and two English newspapers by July 25 informing stakeholders of the opportunity to participate.
Until then, the court ordered that no further flagpole removals should be carried out, and adjourned the matter to August 6 for further hearing.
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