Kanwar Yatra eateries row: SC to hear on Monday petitions against UP Govt’s order to eatery owners to display names of owners
New Delhi, July 21
The controversy surrounding the Uttar Pradesh Government’s directive to eateries on the Kanwar Yatra route to display the names of their owners has reached the Supreme Court with the Association for Protection of Civil Rights challenging its validity.
The petition seeking quashing of the Uttar Pradesh Government’s order is listed for hearing before a Bench of Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice SVN Bhatt on Monday.
Prof Apoorvanand Jha of Delhi University and others have also moved the top court against the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand Government’s directive to the owners of the eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route to display their names outside their shops.
“Impugned directives encourage discrimination on grounds of caste and religion and cannot be seen to serve any ‘legitimate purpose.’ These directives promote discrimination solely based on religious and caste identity, as they do not require the display of food items being served or a statement that no non-vegetarian or non-satvik food is being served, but only the display of religious or caste identity explicit in one’s name. This directly breaches Article 15 of the Constitution of India”, they submitted.
Maintaining that the decision was in the interest of law and order, the Uttar Pradesh Government on July 19 made it mandatory for food and beverage shops along the Kanwar Yatra routes to display the names/identity of the operator/owner of such establishments.
However, opposition political parties and Muslim organisations criticised the decision, terming it discriminatory against Muslims.
In Madhya Pradesh, a similar circular has been issued by the BJP-ruled Ujjain Municipal Corporation which has directed the shop owners in the city to display their names and mobile numbers outside their establishments. Any violation of this order will attract a fine of Rs 2,000 for the first offence and Rs 5,000 if the order is defied for the second time, the Ujjain Municipal Corporation said.
