The Bombay High Court has quashed externment orders issued by the Mumbai Police against two office-bearers of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), holding that merely expressing the view that the Babri Masjid should not have been demolished cannot be considered anti-national.
Justice Madhav Jamdar set aside the December 2025 externment orders against Firoz Abdul Wahab Khan and Mohammad Rafiq Gulam Rasul Ansari, who had been barred from entering Mumbai for one year. The court ruled that the action failed to meet the legal requirements under the Maharashtra Police Act and amounted to an unjustified restriction on the petitioners' fundamental rights.
The externment orders were based on FIRs linked to protests over the Waqf Bill, alleged air pollution from cement godowns in Chembur-Govandi, and the Babri Masjid issue. The High Court observed that the FIRs referred mainly to sloganeering and contained no allegations of violence, damage to public property, or threats to public order.
The court also questioned why only the two SDPI leaders were targeted when members of other political parties had participated in the same protests, raising concerns over selective action. It further held that allegations of links with the banned Popular Front of India (PFI) could not be relied upon because they were not mentioned in the original show-cause notices.
Reiterating that externment is an extraordinary preventive measure affecting a citizen's fundamental right to freedom of movement, the High Court said such powers must be exercised only when supported by concrete evidence and in strict compliance with the law.