3 min readJul 4, 2026 06:40 AM IST First published on: Jul 4, 2026 at 06:40 AM ISTWhy can’t citizens protest government decisions and raise slogans? The police are servants of the people, not of top government functionaries. That question and that statement by a single-judge bench of Bombay High Court need to be celebrated. In a way, in setting aside the externment order issued by Mumbai Police against a political activist, by pointing out that in the absence of evidence that the protester posed a danger to public safety or property, the order affected his constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights, Justice Madhav J Jamdar was only abiding by the Constitution, in letter and spirit, in their fullest form. After all, the judiciary is the custodian of citizen freedoms and a bulwark against their encroachment if and when the state becomes overreaching. And yet, Justice Jamdar’s order on Thursday is also extraordinary. These are times when amid rising polarisation and receding common ground, powerful governments seek to subdue institutions and dominate spaces. They label and criminalise dissent and crack down on political opponents. In the name of the people, they create an architecture of distrust of the citizen. They use democratic instruments to shrink democratic spaces. In times like these, the Bombay High Court has asked a powerful question and spoken a truth to democracy.The petitioner in the case, Saeed Ahmad Abdul Wahid Chaudhary, general secretary of the Social Democratic Party of India, had organised or participated in protests, allegedly without police permission, against the BJP-led government’s decisions on the CAA/NRC, Babri Masjid and sealing at the Gyanvapi mosque. These tangled issues have touched off concerns, especially vis-à-vis the rights of minorities. They call for conversations that make space for citizens to ask difficult questions and express grievances — not for the state to wield extraordinary legal tools against them to send out a chilling message and strip them of their freedom and dignity. When Justice Jamdar asks the police if citizens are being made “slaves of government” by slapping cases for opposing government decisions, he points to the danger that comes from institutions bending to power, smudging lines that separate them and imperilling spaces for checks and balances to kick in.AdvertisementJustice Jamdar’s order will, hopefully, strike echoes in the system. The state must not challenge it. This is an opportunity to correct course. The relief given to an activist by a judge in Mumbai could become a moment for reflection, an act of redeeming. But even if cynicism triumphs and this is a mere flash in the judicial pan, it did shine very bright. Thank you, Justice Jamdar.