In view of the rulings of the Supreme Court prohibiting bandhs, the Orissa High Court once again on Thursday said no political party can claim that it is entitled to paralyse normal life in the entire State in the name of a bandh. This observation came from a Division Bench headed by Chief Justice S Muralidhar while adjudicating a PIL filed by a Cuttack-based businessman.
The HC, instead, allowed the Congress to observe a hartal peacefully.
Naresh Mishra had approached the court stating that some Congress workers have asked the shop owners of Ranihat to down their shutters from 6 am to 12 pm on Friday in the wake of a six-hour bandh call given by the party to press for removal of Minister
Dibya Shankar Mishra for his alleged complicity in the Mamita Meher murder case.
Following an assurance from the Congress that the strike would be peaceful, the court directed the State DGP to criminally prosecute the persons who would be engaged in forcefully paralysing the normal life in the State during the hartal.
The court further observed that rail and road traffic cannot be blocked and normal life cannot be disrupted by forcefully asking the business establishments to down their shutters during the hartal.
The petitioner’s advocate Soumya Ranjan Mohanty said the High Court relied upon the rulings of the Supreme Court in this regard, including the CPI Vs Bharat Kumar judgement of 1998.
Mohanty further informed that Pradesh Congress working president Chiranjib Biswal has assured the court that the hartal would be “peaceful”.
Notably, DGP Abhaya and Twin City Commissioner of Police Saumendra Priyadarshi attended the court proceedings in virtual mode.