Ex-judges can enter Ratnagiri district: Bombay HC

Retired high court judges PB Sawant and BG Kolse-Patil, and social activist Vaishali Patil can enter the district of Ratnagiri following relief from the Bombay high court on Monday.

A division bench of chief justice Mohit Shah and justice Roshan Dalvi has however, asked them to take permission from the district collector if they want to hold a public gathering to protest the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project.

Sawant, Kolse-Patil and Vaishali were restrained by the district collector on three occasions since last October from entering Ratnagiri district to hold a public gathering on the grounds that they incite the gathering, creating law and order problems.

Sawant, Kolse-Patil and Vaishali approached the high court in December 2010 after the state government restrained them from entering Ratnagiri district in October 2010, after the three planned a ‘jail bharo’ agitation in Jaitapur, where India’s biggest nuclear power plant (10,000MW) is to come up.