The Supreme Court of India (SC) stated Thursday that the court does not have any objection against farmers’ right to protest even concerning matters pending before courts, but those protests cannot involve blocking public roads indefinitely.

The top court decided to address the issue regarding whether a party that has approached the Court can exercise the right to protest in public when the case was sub-judice. Another two-judge bench of the SC was also examining this issue brought by Kisan Mahapanchayat, seeking permission to hold protests against the farm laws at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar region. The two-judge bench orally made remarks and objected that a party approaching the court could not exercise the right to protest.

The petition was brought before the SC by a NOIDA resident against the road blockades at the Delhi-NCR region as part of the farmers’ protests. The counsel appearing on behalf of the farmers also suggested that the blockage at the current site is due to the prevention of their passage to Ramlila Maidan. The court stated that it could not answer whether the farmers could continue their protest to Ramlila Maidan at the current stage, but it did not prevent the farmers from continuing with their protest.

After the SC clarification, no objection can be raised concerning the farmers’ protest when the cases are pending before courts.