Khushi Gupta
Published on: May 24, 2022 at 20:06 IST
The Kerala High Court on Monday expressed concerns about children being used in political and religious rallies and made to raise provocative slogans.
A Single Bench of Justice P Gopinath wondered if using children for such activities was legal.
The Bench shared these concerns while adjudicating upon a group of cases involving minors and offences under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and opined that steps must be taken in favour of this goal.
“I just want to know if there is any law which prohibits this. These children will grow up with hatred inside them”, the Justice remarked orally.
This comes two days after the rally organised by the Popular Front of India (PFI) in the Alappuzha District where the video of a minor boy seated on the shoulders of another person and prompting apparently provocative slogans against other religions went viral on social media.
“Children are being forced to take part in political rallies and are made to voice all sorts of provocative slogans. That is some new kind of attraction, it seems. But how far is that legal?”, the Bench stated.
“He added that they must be totally prohibited from taking part in these rallies or sloganeering, pointing out that they do not have the legal right to vote or even drive till they are 18.”
Recently, the High Court had observed that PFI and SDPI are extremist organizations, though not banned.