Inspector general of police Khalid Abu Bakar’s stand  that those holding public rallies must still give a 10-day notice is ‘irresponsible’, ‘arrogant’, and ‘in defiance’ of the court, says PKR vice president N Surendran.

He said with the court of appeal’s decision that it is unconstitutional to punish people who fail to do so , there is no law to enforce that requirement.

“The court's reasoning was that the public's right to assemble peacefully a cannot be subjected to criminal sanction.

“Khalid should read the full judgement before making misleading and mischievous comments on it,” he said in a statement this morning.

Surendran, who was the appellant’s lawyer in yesterday’s landmark court decision, was responding to Khalid’s comment on the Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA) 2012 carried by The New Straits Times online today.

The police chief reportedly said that although the court has struck out Section 9(5) of PAA that spells out the punishment for failing to give police the 10-day notice, Section 9(1) of the law that gives the 10-day requirement still stands.

“The requirements of the law have to be obeyed because it is stated that 10 days' notice has to be submitted (before conducting any assembly),” he was quoted as saying.

Surendran argued that without Section 9(5), there is no legal obligation the public to notify the police of upcoming gatherings, and as such, the notifications would be purely voluntary.

“Notification to police may help organisers in terms of traffic control and other logistics, and should be encouraged.

“Indeed, it is expected that most organisers of large gatherings will continue to voluntarily notify the police of the date and venue of gatherings,” he added.