HC stays recovery from CAA protesters

The Allahabad High Court has stayed a recovery notice issued by the Uttar Pradesh government to a Kanpur man to recover the damage to public property during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act on December 20.

A bench of Justices Pankaj Naqvi and Saurabh Shyam Shamshery stayed the notice issued by the Kanpur’s additional district magistrate to Mohammad Faizan.

They said the Supreme Court was already examining the legality of such orders.

The petitioner’s counsel challenged the notice saying such orders cannot be issued by the additional district magistrate. They said the Supreme Court has unequivocally stated that this order can be issued only by a serving/retired high court judge, or, a retired district judge as “claims commissioner’’.

The order is significant as majority of the other recovery notices issued to protestors across Uttar Pradesh have been issued by local administrative officials.

It is noteworthy that chief minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered to recover the damage from protesters after largescale violence across the state. This led to a race of sort among the district administrations to serve notices. Hundreds of such notices have been issued so far across the state.

The court directed the state government to file a counter-affidavit in the case within a month.

It added that the case be listed in the week commencing April 20 before the appropriate bench for the next hearing. This is subject to outcome of the proceedings before the Supreme Court.