The Allahabad High Court has stayed the recovery notice issued by the Uttar Pradesh government to a man from Kanpur, Mohammed Faizan, accused for destroying public property during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests that began there on December 9, 2019, reported Live Law.
The bench of Justices Pankaj Naqvi and Saurabh Shyam Shamshery provided an ad-interim protection to the petitioner and stayed the notice by the Additional District Magistrate (ADM) saying that the legality of such notices was already being examine by the Supreme Court (SC).
On behalf of Faizan, his counsel Ali Zaidi argued that the notice to him was issued by the ADM, whereas the SC had made clear that such notices could only be issued by a serving or retired High Court judge or a retired District judge as ‘claims commissioner’.
The Supreme Court is hearing a similar challenge in which petitioners have sought a stay on such notices by the government claiming that the notices have been sent to persons who have not been booked under any penal provisions and against whom no criminal offences have been made. Keeping this in mind, the HC has put the matter on hold, subject to the outcome of the proceedings before the SC.
The Allahabad HC has asked the state to file a counter-affidavit within a month and has listed the next hearing for April 20, 2020.
The anti-CAA protests in the UP resulted in over 18 deaths and significant loss to public and private property like government buses, private motorbikes, media vans, etc.
Post this, the UP government issued show cause notices under Sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984 and under Section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, to those allegedly involved in the protests.
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