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Ruling that a democracy cant muzzle dissent, an Indian court on Thursday struck down a travel ban against a Greenpeace activist who has criticized the governments aggressive pursuit of coal-based energy projects.

It was the second significant legal victory this year for the Indian branch of Greenpeace after the same court ruled in January that the government could not block the environmental group from receiving foreign funding for its domestic advocacy work.

In both decisions, the Delhi High Court in the Indian capital dismissed the governments claims that Greenpeace and other non-governmental organizations were acting against national interests for opposing its energy policies, which rely heavily on coal-powered thermal plants that generate huge amounts of carbon emissions.

The state may not accept the views of the civil rights activists, but that by itself cannot be a good enough reason to do away with dissent, Judge Rajiv Shakdher wrote in the Thursday ruling. Shakdher also ruled in favor of Greenpeace in the earlier case.

The activist, Priya Pillai, was stopped at the New Delhi airport in January while attempting to travel to London to speak to British lawmakers about alleged human rights violations by Essar, a British-registered energy company that has proposed to build a coal mine in the Mahan forest in central India.

Greenpeace and other groups have argued that the project would destroy the livelihoods of thousands of villagers and a wildlife corridor that is home to scores of animal species.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said he would protect the environment and invest in renewable energy, but his main priority is to speed up Indias economic development. To bring electricity to the hundreds of millions of Indians who still dont have it, Modis government plans to triple the capacity of coal-fired power plants by 2020.

In court, government lawyers argued that Pillais trip to London would have harmed Indias image abroad and jeopardized Indo-British relations. In his ruling, Shakdher described that claim as completely untenable.

Pillai said the court had cracked down on an undemocratic abuse of power by Modis government.

Its a big, big victory -- not just for Greenpeace and for me personally, but for the people of this country who dare to have a different view on development, Pillai said in an interview.

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Indian court strikes down travel ban on Greenpeace activist