New Delhi: A petition has been moved in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to quash notices sent to the alleged participants in the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protest in Uttar Pradesh for recovering loss caused to public property.
Advocate Parwaiz Arif Titu, the petitioner in the case, has sought stay on these notices, as they were sent in an arbitrary manner.
The plea, which contends that these notices have been sent to persons who were not booked under any criminal offence, was listed for hearing on Friday before a bench headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, but this bench did not sit.
The plea claimed there is “no rule of law” in the state and the authorities conduct acts which are a “complete violation” of fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution.
The plea also said the notices were allegedly sent to a person, who had died six years ago at the age of 94, and also to two others who are aged above 90.
The plea, filed through advocate Nilofar Khan, said that notices were based ona 2010 Allahabad High Court verdict, which is violating the guidelines passed by the apex court in a 2009 judgment and re-affirmed in 2018.
“The contradiction is that while the Supreme Court in 2009 put the onus of assessment of damages and recovery from the accused on high courts of every state, whereas the Allahabad High Court had issued guidelines in 2010 judgement that let the state government undertake these processes to recover damages, which has serious implications,” it said.
The plea sought setting up of an independent judicial inquiry, on the similar lines of the Karnataka High Court, to probe violent incidents during the protests against the CAA-NRC in Uttar Pradesh.
The plea claimed the state government is allegedly seizing assets of protesters in order to “take revenge for political reasons from one community who is in minority”.
