‘Just because they belong to one religion?’: Bombay HC quashes SDPI workers’ externment as ‘totally illegal’

4 min readMumbaiJul 29, 2026 07:00 AM IST Asked to direct petitioners to protest only with prior permission, the judge said, "But why are you refusing prior permission? Therefore this is happening." Setting aside “totally illegal” and “drastic” externment orders passed by the Mumbai Police against two functionaries of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the Bombay High Court on Tuesday orally questioned whether the “selective” action was taken against them “as they belonged to one religion”, noting other Opposition parties had also joined the protests behind the FIRs. Referring to the FIR over protests against the Babri Masjid demolition, cited by police to justify the externment, the judge asked how the petitioners’ view that the mosque should not have been demolished could be an