KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Friday directed the state government to ensure that the court’s decision against hartals is implemented while ensuring fundamental rights of citizens. The directive came on a petition filed by Permuttam Radhakrishnan seeking to declare the hartal called by LDF on September 27 as illegal.
The court was referring to a full bench decision of the Kerala High Court (S Sudin vs Union of India and Others). The full bench had directed to take stringent action against incidents of violence in hartals and said during a hartal or general strike, the government should take adequate steps to ensure the normal life of citizens is not paralysed.
This should be done by giving protection to those not participating in such hartals. The full bench had also said none should be compelled to participate in the hartals and traffic should not be obstructed. At Friday’s hearing, the government said the court’s directive would be followed in letter and spirit.
The petitioner had sought to declared the upcoming hartal as illegal as people were not informed about it 10 days before as mandated in the state government’s Bill against hartals and strikes. “Instead of letting people attend to their works and ensure functioning of institutions, the government was, in a way, assisted people to call a hartal, thereby violating the full bench’s directive,” said the petitioner.
‘State-sponsored’ hartal anti-people, says Surendran
T’Puram: BJP state president K Surendran has termed as ‘anti-people’ the LDF’s decision to conduct a ‘government-sponsored hartal’ on Monday (September 27) in the state at a time when it is reeling under the pandemic. Surendran was referring to the ruling LDF’s call to observe a hartal on Monday to express solidarity with the ‘Bharat Bandh’ called by various farmers unions to protest the Union government’s farm laws. “The agitators and those supporting the hartal should introspect why they are causing a loss to the state for an issue that has no relevance to Kerala,” Surendran said.
Bharat bandh has no relevance to Kerala: BJP
The hartal is on September 27