The Kerala
High Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea seeking a declaration that arrest
and detention for waving black flags in protest is 'illegal' and
'unconstitutional.'
The petition, which also sought compensation for those booked for waving black
flags at Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in protest last year, was
rejected by a bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Murali
Purushothaman.
The detailed order giving reasons for dismissing the
plea is not yet available, advocate Rajesh Vijayan, who appeared for the
petitioner, said.
The matter assumes significance as many Youth Congress
workers were arrested or put in preventive detention in the last few days for
waving black flags at the Kerala CM, or allegedly planning to do so, while he
was in Kozhikode and other districts of the state.
The plea, by one Sam Joseph, had also sought an
inquiry into the alleged professional misconduct by the officers concerned who
had on June 11 last year taken into preventive custody two transgenders who had
reached the venue of an event near Kaloor metro station here wearing a black
dress under the suspicion that they came there to protest.
The plea had also prayed for directions to the police
to provide, to the petitioner, the documents related to the alleged illegal
detention of the transgenders.
The transgenders had claimed they were on their way to
the metro station but the police took them into custody as they were wearing a
black dress and the CM was attending a programme nearby.
The police on the other hand had contended that the
duo were BJP workers, who had arrived there to protest.
The Congress and the BJP had staged widespread
protests and waved black flags at Vijayan at various places last year after the
disclosures made by Swapna Suresh, an accused in the gold-smuggling through
diplomatic bags case.