POSTER WAR: 2 CONG WORKERS ARRESTED

Every order or award passed by the claims tribunal shall be final and no appeal is maintainable against such order before any court, according to the ordinance

LUCKNOW: The police on Sunday arrested two Congress workers for allegedly putting up posters in the city on Friday/Saturday night, demanding recovery of damages from top BJP leaders who had been named accused for rioting in Uttar Pradesh some years back. ACP, Hazratganj, Abhay Mishra confirmed that two Congress workers -Sudhanshu Bajpai and Ashwani had been arrested and sent to judicial custody.

LUCK NOW: The Uttar Pradesh government will set up a claims tribunal to assess and claim compensation from those who damage government and private property, according to the ordinance that governor Anandiben Patel promulgated on Sunday.

The state cabinet had approved the Uttar Pradesh Recovery of Damage to Public and Private Property Ordinance 2020 on March 13. The ordinance will allow the state’s authorities to recover losses to public and private property caused during riots, demonstrations, political processions and illegal agitations.

A retired district judge or an officer of the rank of additional commissioner would be the chairperson of the tribunal and it will have two or more members, a government spokesperson said.

“This is a follow-up step after the state cabinet approved an ordinance to recover losses (to public and private property),” he said.

The ordinance says that it will be the duty of the tribunal to determine the damages caused to public or private property in cases and it may appoint a claims commissioner to estimate the damages and investigate liabilities. It may appoint an assessor in every district. The claims commissioner will make a report to the tribunal within a period of three months or such time as may be granted by the tribunal.

“The claim tribunal will be under the rules and provisions of the ordinance. The tribunal will have the power to attach the property and once a recovery notice is issued to the accused, the authorities could be directed to also publish their name, address, along with photographs with a warning for public at large not to purchase the attached property. The tribunal will give a full and fair opportunity to the accused to present their case,” the spokesperson said.

The claims tribunal will have all the powers of a civil court. “If any amount as compensation has been paid--to the owner of a private property--by the government or an insurance company, then the claims tribunal shall adjust such amount from the compensation amount,” the ordinance says.

The ordinance also says, “On receipt of the report of the concerned circle officer of the police based on FIR of the incident, the district magistrate or commissioner of police shall take immediate steps to file a claim petition before the tribunal for compensation preferably within three months of the date of the incident.”

“Every order or award passed by the claims tribunal shall be final and no appeal is maintainable against such order before any court,” says the ordinance.

On March 5, the state government put up over 50 roadside hoardings in various prominent locations in Lucknow with photographs and details of those against whom recovery notices had been issued for damaging public and private property during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests in December last year.

The Allahabad high court took a suo motu cognizance of the hoardings. On March 9, the high court directed the Lucknow administration to remove the hoardings. However, the state government challenged the high court order in the Supreme Court on March 11.

Like the high court, the Supreme Court too told the UP government that no existing law could back their action and referred the case to a larger bench. Thereafter, the UP cabinet approved the ordinance on Friday.

At the high court, the matter is scheduled to come up for hearing on Monday as the high court had asked the government to file a compliance report after removing the hoardings.

Till Sunday evening, the state government had not removed the hoardings. “We will present our case before the honourable high court tomorrow (Monday). The Supreme Court has formed a larger bench to hear our case,” the spokesperson said.

A state government source said: “Tomorrow, at the hearing, we will plead with the honourable High Court that our plea regarding the case is pending in the honourable Supreme Court which has referred it to a larger bench.”

The issue has already triggered a political poster war. Samajwadi Party (SP) leader IP Singh put up hoardings with pictures of former BJP leaders Chinmayanand and Kuldeep Sengar at a couple of road crossings in Lucknow.

Sengar, who represented Bangarmau (Unnao) in the state assembly, was sentenced to jail on December 20 last year for “remainder of his natural biological life” for raping a woman in 2017 in Unnao when she was a minor. He has since been disqualified from the UP assembly.

He was also convicted for culpable homicide not amounting to murder in the death of the Unnao rape victim’s father.

Chinmayanand was arrested in September last year after a 23-year-old woman accused him of sexual harassment and blackmail. Soon, Congress leaders put up hoardings with pictures of chief minister Yogi Adityanath and deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

The police overnight removed the posters and arrested two Congress workers for allegedly putting them up.