Image Courtesy: theleaflet.in
Allahabad High Court has made it to the news again. On Tuesday it made it to the news for recognising that the violence in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) is worthy of a probe and directed the NHRC to conclude an inquiry within a month. On the same day it made it to the news for taking suo moto cognisance of “the situation in Uttar Pradesh”. It was the same bench of Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Vivek Varma that directed the NHRC probe.
The Bench converted an email received from Bombay High Court Lawyer Ajay Kumar into a PIL and also cited news reports on Uttar Pradesh. With respect to the email, the bench said, “It is alleged that the situation in the State of Uttar Pradesh is antithetical to core constitutional values and warrants interference of this Court.” The bench referred to news report from The Telegraph, The New York Times and The Indian Express.
December proved to be the worst month for the state of Uttar Pradesh and things look better now on the surface, the administrative action continues. Uttar Pradesh saw the worst of prohibitive action under section 144, worst of the police action, 20 deaths due to police brutality, thousands of people being detained and hundreds being arrested; all this after anti-CAA protests started erupting in the state. People belonging to Muslim community were especially targeted even though they were not partaking in the protests.
People who condemned the violence and barbaric acts of the state are hopeful that the PIL will address these issues and bring the perpetrators to book. The court has appointed Senior Advocate S.F.A. Naqvi and Advocate Ramesh Kumar as amicus Curiae in the matter and has listed it for January 16.
Notice was also issued to state of UP as to why necessary directions as prayed be not issued.
The complete order may be read here
Related: