- (1.) This petition has been filed by a collective group of individuals describing themselves as the Morning Walkers Association through Sri Promod Kumar Jain, a Senior Counsel of the High Court accompanied by a couple of Senior Counsels, Sri W.H. Khan and Sri V.M. Zaidi and with the support of Sri G.S. Hajela another counsel of this Court. Sri Ram Chandra Gupta is the petitioner no. 6. They are all residents of adjoining localities in the vicinity of New Cantonment at Allahabad. They submit that they are regular morning and evening walkers on the roads that fall inside the New Cantonment area including the roads that are accessible to the public, particularly Cariappa Road, Ponappa Road and Lawrence Road. Their morning walks were interrupted by checkings carried out by armed soldiers of the Indian Army at the entry point and crossings of such roads with an insistence to obtain a requisite pass from the military authorities. This sparked off the controversy in February, 2014.
(2.) On enquiry, the petitioners allege that for the purpose of commuting on such roads an application for issuance of a temporary pass to a civilian has to be moved and pass obtained, the format whereof is Annexure - 1 to the writ petition. The petitioners were orally informed that an amount of Rs.150/- has to be paid as a fee for the said pass. They contend that the morning and evening walkers in the locality of the Cantonment area are all respectable citizens of the city including Hon'ble Judges of the High Court, Advocates, Academicians, Businessmen and practically people from all walks of life that comprise of male and female population both. The roads that are being used for the said purpose have been open to the public at large, particularly Cariappa Road, Ponappa Road, Ashoka Road, Hastings Road, Auckland Road and other connecting roads that crisscross the roads in the Cantt Area. The said roads are also linked with the other areas and merely because these roads are linked with roads within the Cantt Area does not change their nature as public utility roads so as to impose such commuting restrictions that are now sought to be imposed by the respondents by insisting commutation on issuance of passes. It is this routine daily pilgrimage that has come under a military scanner that forms the factual matrix giving rise to the issues involved in the present petition.
(3.) Learned Senior Counsel for the petitioners Sri Ravi Kiran Jain is right when he submits that a walk for a human being is as essential as a swim for a fish and a flight for a bird. It is natural, as a human being is physically designed, by nature, to negotiate distances. It is his elixir of life. Walking, as an exercise and as a means of adventure, is natural to man and the present petitioners have come forward to protect such natural behaviour, asserting it as a right, calling upon the court to instruct the respondents not to interrupt their morning walks on streets open to the public within the cantonment limits of the New Cantt. Allahabad by policing, as it offends their lawful right to traverse and commute freely on the grounds of violation of the rights of freedom in its various dimensions enshrined under Part - III of the Constitution of India. Sri Jain, learned Senior Counsel then invited the attention of the Court to Article 19(1)(d) of the Constitution of India and also cited the division bench judgment of the Karnataka High Court in the case of Nitin G. Khot Vs. Station Commandant, Belgaum, Writ Petition No. 3549 of 1997 decided on 23rd January, 1998. A copy of the said judgment has been placed before us to contend that this issue has been decided and the ratio of the said decision is clearly attracted on the facts of the present case to construe that the said restrictions which are sought to be imposed are unreasonable as they tend to close down such roads of the Cantonment for commutation including morning and evening walks. He has further invited the attention of the Court to the order dated 24th August, 1998 in Special Leave to Appeal No. 8218 of 1998 whereby the Apex Court dismissed the Special Leave Petition filed by the military authorities challenging the aforesaid decision of the Karnataka High Court. To further buttress his submissions Sri Jain has fundamentally questioned not only the said restrictions being imposed as without authority but also as unconstitutional and for that he has referred to the constitutional provisions leading to the judgment of the Apex Court in the case of Naga People s Movement of Human Rights Vs. Union of India, 1998 AIR(SC) 431 .;