UP, Uttarakhand directives requiring eatery owners’ to display their names challenged in SC
The instructions issued in view of the Kanwar Yatra pilgrimage are discriminatory, promote communal discord and threaten livelihoods, the petitions alleged.
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Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Delhi University professor Apoorvanand Jha and activist Aakar Patel have moved the Supreme Court challenging directives issued by the authorities in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand that require eateries along the Kanwar Yatra pilgrimage route to display their owners’ names, reported The Hindu on Sunday.
The directives apply to the proprietors of dhabas, food stalls and hotels along the pilgrimage route in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar and Uttarakhand’s Haridwar.
The petition by Jha and Patel contends that the directives are a deliberate attempt to discriminate on the grounds of religion and caste, and that they violate fundamental rights.
Their petition said that the state governments were using their administrative apparatus to suppress the rights of shopkeepers belonging to certain communities. These directives lack the authority of law and should be quashed, they said.
“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,” the petition said.
The directives invited criticism from various quarters, including the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s allies in the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre. The BJP is in power...
