The Uttar Pradesh government has filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the Allahabad High Court order directing the Lucknow district administration to remove the hoardings of anti-CAA protesters put up in the state capital.
Shalabh Mani, one of the media advisors to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, said the UP government had filed a petition against the High Court order asking Lucknow administration to remove hoardings carrying pictures of anti-CAA protesters. “The hearing is slated for Thursday morning,” he added.
In its March 9 order, the Allahabad High Court had asked the Lucknow authorities to remove the hoardings carrying pictures of anti-CAA protesters and report to the court on March 16.
In its order, the court said that the action of Lucknow administration was “highly unjust” and was an encroachment on the personal liberty of the people concerned.
UP’s Law Minister Brajesh Pathak said that the state government was determined to exercise its legal right to ensure that the people who had taken law in their hands and damaged property were punished.
He said that a handful of people were trying to blackmail the government and “we will not let them do so”.
The Lucknow administration has put up hoardings with photos and addresses of 53 anti-CAA protesters across the city, identifying them as rioters and projecting them as defaulters who have failed to pay for the damages caused by them during violence on December 19 last year.
The hoardings include pictures of Shia cleric Maulana Saif Abbas, retired IPS officer SR Darapuri and Congress leader Sadaf Jafar, drawing a sharp reaction from social activists and retired bureaucrats.
The Lucknow administration has assessed the damage caused by anti-CAA protesters during violence that broke out during the protests at Rs 1.55 crore. Officials claim that 16 people have been served recovery notices of over Rs 69 lakh till now. Shia cleric Maulana Saif Abbas and son of Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, Sibtain Noori are among the 16 who have been served notices.
The hoardings were put up despite on January 31 the Supreme Court asking the Yogi Adityanath government to respond to a petition against the Uttar Pradesh administration’s move to confiscate property of people who protested against the amended citizenship law in December last year.
Parwaiz Arif Titu, a lawyer who had moved the apex court, also asked the Supreme Court to order a judicial inquiry into the violence that took place in UP during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.