Defiant Yogi Govt to challenge HC order on removal of ‘name-and-shame’ hoardings

As widely anticipated, Uttar Pradesh Government has not taken down the hoardings carrying names, addresseses and photographs of anti-CAA protestors, who were accused by the government with damaging public property. They include a retired IPS officer, a lawyer and a teachers besides social activists.

Allahabad High Court on Monday had directed the state government to immediately take down the hoardings, which infringed upon the privacy and fundamental rights to life and liberty of the people, it held.

But the Yogi Government is getting ready to challenge the order in the Supreme Court. Since the hoardings were put up in the first place at the instance of the UP chief minister, it was expected that the CM, not known for statesmanship or flexibility, would defy the order and resist compliance.

The Court had directed the Lucknow district administration to remove the hoardings and report the compliance to the Court on March 16.

State’s Law Minister Brijesh Pathak said that the state government is studying the High Court order and the same will be challenged in the Supreme Court. “The Government will exercise its legal power to ensure that people who had taken law in their hands and damaged property are punished,” the minister said.

He said that a handful of people are trying to blackmail the government and we will not let them do so.

The Law Minister said that the Government was in touch with legal luminaries and they are studying the order.  He said that the government is waiting for a go ahead from the lawyers.

A senior official in the law department told this reporter that the state government was also in touch with top lawyers in India. “The government seems to be in no mood to buckle down to the pressure and therefore is looking for all the options,” he said.

The BJP on the other hand seems to be enjoying the situation to the hilt. Vijay Bahadur Pathak, state general secretary says that it is  a win-win situation for the party. By putting up the posters the government has sent the message that it will not tolerate any non-sense.

“Governance is an art of sending message and the government is able to send right message,” he said.

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 during violence on December 19 last year.

The hoardings include pictures of Shia cleric Maulana Saif Abbas, retired IPS SR Darapuri and Congress leader Sadaf Jafar, drawing sharp reaction from social activists and retired bureaucrats.

The Lucknow administration has assessed the damage to be worth Rs 1.55 crore. Officials claim that 16 people have been served recovery notices of over Rs 69 lakh till now. The list includes Shia cleric Maulana Saif Abbas and son of Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, Sibtain Noori, are also among the 16 who have been served notices.

The hoardings were put up despite the Supreme Court asking the Yogi Adityanath government in January to respond to a petition against the Uttar Pradesh administration’s move to confiscate property of people who protested against the amended citizenship law last month.

Parwaiz Arif Titu, a lawyer who had petitioned the top court, also asked the Supreme Court to order a judicial inquiry into the violence that took place in the state during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, or CAA.