New Delhi: Justice Madhav Jamdar of Bombay high court ruled on Thursday, July 2, that a citizen has the right to protest and police are public servants, not “servants of the chief minister or prime minister”. His observations accompanied a written order that quashed the externment – an order to leave and stay out of an area for a specified time – passed by Maharashtra police against a political activist.“What is this? All citizens are being made slaves of the Indian government… They cannot stage protests, they cannot agitate – what is all this?” Justice Jamdar said during the hearing, as per Live Law.Saeed Ahmad Abdul Wahid Chaudhary, general secretary of the Socialist Democratic Party of India (SDPI), had been organising protests on issues such the amendments to the Citizenship Act, 1955 and the Gyanwapi mosque controversy. On December 3, 2025, the deputy commissioner of police externed him for a year and the divisional commissioner of the Konkan Range upheld the decision.The court reversed that order on Thursday, calling it “mala fide”.“The petitioner, acting in his capacity, has arranged morchas and dharnas against certain decisions taken by the Government of India. That cannot be a ground for a person to be externed under the Maharashtra Police Act,” Justice Jamdar’s written order says, as per Live Law.“As per the Articles 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India not only do citizens have the freedom to express their opinion but also to live with dignity. The action taken by the respondents against the petitioner for merely opposing certain decisions of the government of India affects his fundamental rights,” Justice Jamdar dictated in the order, UNI reports.The judge’s other oral observations were also strict, in which he said he would impose costs on the police officers who signed on Chaudhary’s externment.“Petitioner has just raised slogans like ‘BJP government murdabad’, ‘Amit Shah murdabad’. Why can’t citizens raise such slogans? It is the right of the citizens to protest,” he observed.He said, in a lighter vein, Live Law reports, that the petitioner, Chaudhary, could enter the “washing machine” since FIRs have been registered against him. “Anyway, horse trading is going on in entire Maharashtra,” he observed, remarking on the political developments in the state where six Shiv Sena (UBT) members of parliament have moved to the Shiv Sena headed by Eknath Shinde, an ally of the BJP.“Day before yesterday, a ten-year-old child was killed in an accident, and what the State Assembly was discussing was how a Presiding Officer is elected and how he has shifted from one party to another. What is this?” Justice Jamdar said.The SDPI has listed on its web site the pending criminal cases against Chaudhary. The declaration includes four FIRs, all related to “protest without permission”, “unlawful assembly” and one charge of defacing public property.