Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government's move to ‘name and shame’ anti-CAA activists accused of violence by putting up hoardings with their photographs and names is “highly unjust” and an “absolute encroachment of their privacy”, the Allahabad High Court said in an oral observation.
The hoardings also gave their respective addresses and the amount to be recovered as damages from them.
The court took suo motu cognizance of the Lucknow administration’s decision to name and shame the accused and convened a bench headed by the chief justice on Saturday night.
The bench also fixed a special hearing at 10 am on Sunday – otherwise a court holiday. The district magistrate and the commissioner of police, Lucknow, were summoned and asked to cite the law under which the hoardings were put up.
Since Advocate General (AG) Raghvendra Singh could not reach the court on time to respond on the government’s behalf, the court deferred the hearing to 3 pm with the hope that “good sense would prevail” on the State and it would remove the banners.
When the court met at 3 pm, the AG disputed the court’s jurisdiction. He said, “Since the hoardings were put up in Lucknow, the principal seat of High Court in Allahabad had no jurisdiction to take up this matter suo motu.”
Chief Justice Govind Mathur responded that the High Court has jurisdiction over matters concerning the entire state. The Bench further said that this aspect would also be clarified in the judgment to be pronounced in the matter.
The Advocate General also argued that the hoardings were put up to deter others from indulging in violence with the aim of maintaining law and order.
The court finally reserved the judgment for 2pm on March 9, Monday. The banners had been not removed till Sunday evening. They carry personal details of 27 anti-CAA activists, including Shia cleric Maulana Saif Abbas, retired IPS officer SR Darapuri and Congress leader Sadaf Jafar.
The hoardings came up on all major crossings in the State capital on Thursday late at night.
The posters say that the property of the accused will be confiscated if they fail to pay the compensation. A government spokesman said the posters have been up on the chief minister's directive. The activists had expressed concerns that the banners might pose risk to their lives.
