Did You Instigate Protestors Or Not? Bombay High Court Asks Manoj Jarange To Respond To Allegations Of Damage To Public Property In Mumbai

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed Manoj Jarange and organizers of the protest for Maratha Reservation in Mumbai to file an affidavit responding to allegations of large-scale damage caused to public properties in the city during the protest. The court said this while noting that the issue for which Jarange and his supporters protested in Mumbai had been resolved now. The development came in a PIL regarding the inconvenience caused to people due to the protests.Jarange has been on a hunger strike at Azad Maidan since Friday (August 29), demanding 10 percent reservation for the Maratha community in government jobs and education under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category. His supporters said he stopped consuming water from Monday.During the hearing a division bench of Acting Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Aarti Sathe questioned Jarange and the Maharashtra Government about the large scale damage to public properties in Mumbai caused by the protestors.The Acting Chief Justice orally remarked asked, "Who will take care of this?"To this senior advocate Satish Maneshinde appearing for Jarange and other organisers of the rally denied the allegations and said, "Milords, those are old photos. This time there has not been any damage to public properties in Mumbai. Milords, there are some FIRs and I think it will take care". At this stage Justice Sathe said, "You are denying but there are photos of policemen injured."The Acting Chief Justice thereafter said:"Okay then you file an affidavit stating that you (Jarange and other organisers) are not responsible for any damage... You did not instigate the protestors... Everything done is voluntarily (done by the protestors). Let there be an affidavit otherwise we cannot dispose of the PIL. There are very serious allegations against you and you will have to respond to those allegations. So file an affidavit". The court thereafter granted 8 weeks time on Maneshinde's request. On Tuesday the court had come down heavily on both Jarange and the state government over the continued sitting of protestors at Azaad Maidan despite a court direction to vacate the site by 3PM. The court had further said that State government could have "forcefully" vacated the protest site.Case Title – AMY Foundation v. State of Maharashtra and Ors.Case no. – Public Interest Litigation (L) No. 25656 of 2025

Did You Instigate Protestors Or Not? Bombay High Court Asks Manoj Jarange To Respond To Allegations Of Damage To Public Property In Mumbai

Narsi Benwal

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