The division bench noted that a coordinate bench of the Allahabad HC had already entertained a similar petition and had sought replies from the state govt.
Allahabad| The Allahabad HC on Friday passed an interim order effectively staying the directive of the Additional District Magistrate, Bijnor, to recover damages from four persons for the destruction of public property during Anti-CAA protests.
The four persons had approached the High Court challenging the ADM’s order.
The order passed by a Bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Deepak Verma states,
“Till the next date of listing, no recovery shall be made from the petitioner pursuant to the impugned order dated 24.02.2020 passed by Additional District Magistrate (F/R) Bijnor.”: Allahabad High Court
The Lucknow administration had assessed the damage to be worth Rs 1.55 crore. As per information, 10 people from the Thakurganj area and six from the Qaiserbagh area have been served recovery notices of over Rs 69 lakh till now. Among the 16 who have been served notices include, Shia cleric Maulana Saif Abbas and Sibtain Noori (son of Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Sadiq).
The notices were served soon after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath warned those who were involved in violence during the anti-CAA protests of ‘revenge’ for damaging the public property including the police motorcycles, government buses, barriers, and sticks.
The Petitioners had approached the high court against the order of the ADM stating that the legality of such notices was already under question before the Supreme Court
Allegedly, the December 19, 2019 protests in Lucknow and other parts of the state caused many causalities and substantial loss to public and private property, including Govt. buses, media vans, motorbikes, etc.
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Thereafter, the state govt. of UP issued show-cause notices under Sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984 and under Section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, to those allegedly involved in the protests.
The order was passed after taking note that another Bench of the High Court had allowed similar interim relief last month to a person based in Kanpur, who had been issued a similar notice.
The Court has also been urged to direct the Uttar Pradesh government to follow the procedure as per the guidelines of the Supreme Court in 2009 and 2018 while recovering damages for loss to public property on account of the protests.
Large-scale violence was reported from many parts of the state which caused several causalities and substantial loss over the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which opposition termed as ‘divisive’ and ‘anti-Muslim’.
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