Why is TDP not challenging GO No. 1 in court?
The GO was quite explicit that organisers, including political parties, had to get police approval even to hold gatherings in alternative public and private locations. The ruling cited the eight people who died in a stampede in Kandukuru town, nellore district, last week as the direct cause. The police restricted N Chandrababu Naidu's roadshow and rallies in his home seat of kuppam within a day of issuing the order, setting up a tremendous uproar from the tdp leaders.
Nearly all political parties demanded that the administration revoke the GO because they thought it was a punitive order. Fascinatingly, up to this point, neither the tdp nor any other party filed a lawsuit against the GO with the supreme court. Even senior attorneys who have been providing the tdp with legal support have so far kept quiet. Investigations showed that the GO was painstakingly written based on Section 30 of the police Act of 1861. A top attorney claims that the clause merely addresses the police's authority to permit or forbid a public gathering on the highways based on the local circumstances.