‘You cannot recover money from rioters’: Supreme Court pulls up UP govt on CAA, orders them to take back notices
SC said ‘you cannot be complainant, adjudicator and prosecutor,’ to the Yogi Adityanath government over recovery notices.
Uttar Pradesh government have issued orders to recover damage to public properties from people who protested against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in 2019 and the riot accused but the Supreme Court have given one final opportunity to UP Government to withdraw the proceedings and warned that it will quash the proceedings for being in violation of the law.
The top court said that the proceedings initiated in December 2019 were contrary to the law laid down by the Supreme Court and cannot be sustained.
A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant said that the Uttar Pradesh government has acted like a complainant, adjudicator and prosecutor, by itself in conducting the proceedings to attach the properties of the accused.
“Withdraw the proceedings or we will quash it for being in violation of the law laid down by this court”, the court said.
The top court was hearing a plea filed by Parwaiz Arif Titu seeking quashing of notices sent to alleged protestors by the district administrations in UP.
The plea has alleged that such notices have been sent in an “arbitrary manner” against a person, who had died six years ago at the age of 94 and also to several others including two people who are aged above 90.
The court’s reference was to its 2009 ruling that the claims commissioner who will estimate damages in such cases and investigate liability will be a judge.
The apex court had reiterated this in a decision in 2018. Additional Advocate General Garima Prashad, appearing for the UP government, said that 106 FIRs were registered against 833 rioters in the State and 274 recovery notices were issued against them.
