Marching from Kalaivanar to the Tamil Nadu Secretariat in Chennai, members of various Muslim outfits on Wednesday staged a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), defying the orders of the Madras High Court. The court had ordered an interim stay on the protest, stating that there was no proper authorization for the same from the police.
State additional advocate general SR Rajagopal had also told the court that the application seeking police permission for the protests should have been made five days prior, but in this case, the permission was only sought on Monday for the protest on Wednesday.
He also said that under the Madras City Police Act, Section 41 had been imposed banning any kind of protest in the city for 15 days starting February 13.
The massive anti-CAA rally began where people were seen moving to Chepauk, the last stop of the rally where make-shift stage has been set up for an address.
The collective of these outfits have demanded that in the ongoing session that is to end tomorrow, the State Assembly adopt a resolution against the CAA.
Massive protest by anti-CAA groups who marched to demand that the Assembly pass a resolution against #CAA #NRC .Madras High Court restrained Federation of Tamil Nadu Islamic & other political organisations from laying siege to the Secretariat@TheQuint #CAA_NRC_Protest pic.twitter.com/vP0X1ANzDO
— Smitha T K (@smitha_tk) February 19, 2020
Chennai: Thousands take part in the anti-CAA rally organized by Muslim groups defying the orders of Madras High Court.
Police officials deployed in large numbers. Drones are also being used to monitor the situation. #CAA_NRCProtests #Chennai #MHC #AntiCAAprotests pic.twitter.com/ZFFsrHHPFc
— Shilpa Nair (@NairShilpa1308) February 19, 2020
Around 15000 Muslims protest at Chennai's Chepauk demanding
assembly resolution against CAA. The Madras High Court restraining protest March to assembly they say wouldn't apply to them as they are not respondents. However they say they wouldn't march to assembly. pic.twitter.com/eHvkh8ApdE— J Sam Daniel Stalin (@jsamdaniel) February 19, 2020
At Chennai’s 'Shaheen Bagh' in Washermanpet, around 3,000 women have been staging a protest against the CAA-NPR-NRC. Earlier, CM E Palaniswami had requested the Muslims to cooperate saying, “The state government would not allow any acts against minorities and would stand as a shield for them”, reported NDTV.
Reportedly, on Tuesday he had said that the CAA fell under the domain of the Central government, possibly implying that the State government could not or would not pass a resolution demanding its review and revocation.
