LUCKNOW: Staying all proceedings and coercive action against Syed Saif Abbas Naqvi, who was issued a recovery notice over the anti-CAA protests by the Uttar Pradesh government, the Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court on Thursday directed the Uttar Pradesh government not to take any action till the next hearing in the case.
A division bench comprising Justice Alok Singh and Justice Karunesh Singh Pawar directed the UP government not to take any coercive action against Naqvi till the next hearing of the case.
The court awarded four weeks’ time to the state government to file a counter affidavit in the case. “Learned counsel for respondents (state government) is granted four weeks’ time for filing a counter affidavit. Thereafter, two weeks is granted to the petitioner (Syed Saif Abbas Naqvi) for filing a rejoinder affidavit,” ordered the court.
“In the meantime, no coercive action shall be taken against the petitioner,” the court said.
The Yogi Adityanath government had issued an order on March 3, by which the petitioner and others were held jointly as well as separately responsible and liable for damages amounting to Rs 67 lakh. The court has posted the case for hearing in January along with a bunch of other related writ petitions.
The order was hailed by those accused of damaging public property during the anti-CAA protests in Lucknow in December last year. They alleged that the state government’s move of issuing recovery notices was illegal.
In total, four recovery notices were issued to 57 people to realise an amount of Rs 1.55 crore as compensation for damages to public property by anti-CAA protesters in state capital.
The accused also challenged the competence of the additional district magistrates (ADMs) who had served notices for the violent anti-CAA protests in Lucknow. “We welcome the court’s stand. The state government’s stand of sending recovery notices to innocent people was an illegality,” said Saif Abbas.
Similarly, retired IPS officer SR Darapuri and social activist Deepak Kabir, who were also among the accused, welcomed the order.
It may be recalled that Lucknow administration had put up hoardings on March 5, 2020 of 57 persons who had already been served notices for the recovery of Rs 1.55 crore. The High Court took suo motu cognizance of the hoardings and convened an urgent hearing on March 8.
A division bench of the High Court, comprising chief justice Govind Mathur and Justice Ramesh Sinha, asked the authorities to remove the hoardings as it was ‘an unwarranted step encroaching privacy of people’.
Subsequently, the UP government challenged the order in the Supreme Court and on March 12, the apex court referred the matter to a larger bench holding that an important issue of privacy was involved in the matter. Thereafter, the state government also promulgated an ordinance for the setting up of tribunals for recovery of damages during protests and agitations.