Lucknow: The Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government of Uttar Pradesh has approached the Supreme Court to challenge the Allahabad High Court’s verdict which ordered the State to remove all hoardings of anti-CAA protesters calling them illegal, violation of Article 21 and misuse of power.
The State filed a petition in the apex court in this regard Wednesday. The matter is listed for hearing Thursday 10:30 am.
The Allahabad High court, which had taken suo motu cognizance of the hoardings Saturday night and held urgent hearings on Sunday, had on Monday ordered immediate removal of all hoardings.
The court also directed the government to submit a compliance report by 16 March. However, the hoardings have not been removed yet. Rather, the government decided to approach the SC for respite.
The bench headed by chief justice of HC Govind Mathur and Justice Ramesh Sinha ruled, “The learned Advocate General failed to satisfy us as to why personal data of few persons have been placed on banners though in the State there are lakhs of accused persons facing serious criminal charges but their personal details have not been subjected to publicity.”
They further said, “The state can take necessary steps to ensure maintenance of law and order but that cannot be by violating fundamental rights of people...In entirety, the action of the State is nothing but an unwarranted interference in privacy of people which violated Article 21 of the Constitution.”
