Voluntary Membership Can't Be Proscribed By Executive, Violates Article 19(1)(g): MP HC Slams Erstwhile Ban On Central Govt Employees Joining RSS

In a plea filed by a retired government servant seeking permission to join RSS, the Madhya Pradesh High Court came down heavily on the previous office memorandums issued by the Union of India that listed the organization in the banned category. “….the issuance of the OMs painting the whole universe of even the apolitical activities of RSS as communal, anti-secular and against national interest is a decision having drastic consequences, not only for the organisation, but also everybody aspiring to associate with it with the noble interest of rendering community & public service”, the court underscored that RSS was the 'only nationally established self-driven voluntary organisation outside the governmental bureaucratic hierarchy'. To give wide publicity to the removal of RSS from the list of 'don't join' organisations, a direction has also been made to the Department of Personnel and Training and Ministry of Home Affairs, GOI to display the contents of freshly issued circular publicly on the Home Page of its Official Website.Within 9 days, the said circular should also be sent to all relevant departments and undertakings of the Central Government, the court stipulated. The court enquired if there were ever any cogent findings that explained how the involvement of central government employees with RSS or its affiliate activities would cause communal bias. Since the Union of India did not file any reply despite repeated inquiries by the bench, the court noted as below: “The Court… is compelled to believe and presumed that perhaps there was never any material, study, survey or report at the relevant point of time on the basis of which the ruling dispensation arrived at a satisfaction that involvement and engagement of central government employees even with the apolitical/non political activities of RSS must be banned for maintaining the communal fabric and secular character of the country” The court remarked that the impugned OMs curtailed the freedom of lakhs of government employees under Article 19 for decades without proper justification.