Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on July 22 stayed the operation of controversial directives issued by the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand Governments requiring all eateries and dhabas along the Kanwar Yatra route to display names of owners and workers.
Issuing notice on petitions challenging the impugned directives, a Bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and SVN Bhatti remarked that the devotees may be served with food of their choice maintaining standard hygiene.
The Apex court was hearing a batch of pleas including those by TMC MP Mahua Moitra, academician Apoorvanand Jha and columnist Aakar Patel, and NGO Association of Protection of Civil Rights challenging the directives. At the outset, the bench asked senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Moitra, if any formal order has been passed in the matter.
Singhvi said a ‘camouflaged order’ has been passed to display names of owners of eateries. He asserted the orders passed by the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments is ‘exclusion by identity’ and against the Constitution. Senior advocate Chander Uday Singh, appearing for Association for Protection of Civil Rights, submitted that while the state authorities were claiming the order proposed voluntary compliance, it was being enforced by coercion. “It is not based on any statutory backing. No law gives police commissioner power to do this,” he asserted. Asking Singhvi to desist from exaggeration, the bench told him, |These orders have dimensions of safety and hygiene also.”
