The PIl filed for preventing Narendra Modi’s Kanpur rally was dismissed by the Allahabad High Court on Friday as the petitioner failed to prove her title of possessing the land that is venue of the rally.
The petition was failed by a Dalit woman Sunil Kumari claiming that the land of the venue was owned by 127 Dalits and no permission was taken from them by the district administration before allowing the rally on it. Dismissing the petition, a division bench comprising
Justice Sheo Kumar Singh and Justice Sanjay Mishra observed that the district administration had taken consent of the police and the social welfare department that were concerned owners of the land in question. The court also noted that the venue was chosen after completing all formalities and preparations for the rally were made and therefore there was no need to interfere in the matter.Counsels of the petitioner, SFA Naqvi and KK Roy argued that the petitioner was a Dalit lady having no source of income and the place of venue was the land allotted to the members of Dalit community for livelihood. Even no prior permission was taken from them by the district administration before choosing it as venue of Modi’s rally. Their plea was that the petitioner did not oppose Modi’s rally but her grievance was that it is the state Government that permitted use of their land without their permission knowing the fact that a civil suit in respect of land in question is pending.
Appearing for the state Government, standing counsel Ramanand Pandey submitted before the court that neither the petitioner nor any other person had been allotted the land over which the rally was going to take place. He said that the land belonged to the police department and the social welfare department had been authorised to manage its use. He also pointed out that at no point of time the name of petitioner or any other Dalit person was recorded as owner of the land in revenue records.BJP counsel Keshari Nath Tripathi argued that the rally venue was fixed after seeking consent of the district administration and all the departments concerned having legal possession over the land. He said that on account of the PIl at a time when all the preparations were in place for the rally, a sudden change in the venue was not possible at the last moment.