By TwoCircles.net Staff reporter,
New Delhi: Supreme Court has today uphold Bombay High Court decision to deny entry of a controversial Hindutva activist and chief of Sri Ram Sene Pramod Muthalik, notorious for his moral policing. It added that the order banning him from the popular holiday destination was justified.
The Supreme Court on Monday was listening to the appeal by Sri Ram Sene chief Pramod Muthalik against the Goa government’s decision to ban his entry into the state.
A bench led by Chief Justice H L Dattu also censured Sri Ram Sene for moral policing and assaulting women in its name.
Muthalik, the leader of the radical outfit Sri Rama Sene that attacked young pub-goers, mostly women, in Mangalore in 2009, was banned from Goa in August over concerns expressed by the police.
Justifying that decision, the Supreme Court today said: “What are you doing in Mangalore? Are you doing moral policing? Beating up girls at a pub in Mangalore? The High court is justified in stopping you. Let him not enter Goa for the time being – for six months.”
It said that Muthalik must remain outside Goa for at least six months.
Muthalik had challenged the high court ban saying it was “orchestrated by an invisible hand operating from Goa or New Delhi.”
He said that repeated prohibitory orders since last year violated his fundamental rights as he wanted to visit the BJP-ruled state for religious purposes.
Explaining his side before Supreme Court today, Muthalik referred to personalities like All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi, his brother Akbaruddin Owaisi and social activist Binayak Sen, saying they had not been banned from Goa.
But court sidelined all of his contentions and went on to uphold court’s order of banning his entry in Goa state.
Muthalik had come to the spotlight in 2009 after his men were seen dragging women out of a pub by hair, slapping and abusing them. Such act of moral policing was then widely condemned throughout the nation.