The Supreme Court prohibited police authorities from enforcing government orders that mandated owners of hotels and dhabas along the Kanwar Yatra route to display their names and that of their employees.
The top court also issued notice to Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand government and other states where the order was operational.
Food stall owners must not be forced, the court said. The court however directed eateries to display the kind of food served at their establishment.
The top court observed that compelling proprietors and their employees to display their names and address infringed on the secular characteristic of the constitution. The apex court observed that a fallout of the government order resulted in retrenchment of certain employees.
“If the intention is to provide only veg food to the Kanwariyas, then the directive is contended to be contrary…,” the top court observed. “It is a contention that the directives are discriminatory,” the bench added.
“To require naming of owners of establishments by itself can't be read as a measure to ensure vegetarian or ‘shuddh shakahari food’ for the pilgrims,” the bench noted. “Compelling all proprietors to display their names and address, and also of their staff, would hardly achieve the intended objective,” it added.
The order, which created quite a stir for its implied communal tenor, was challenged by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights, TMC MP Mahua Moitra and Delhi University Professor Apoorvanand and ex-Amnesty India head Aakar Patel.
On July 18, Muzzafarnagar police issued the order mandating eatery owners and their employees along the Kanwar Yatra route to display their names, address and phone numbers on a board. A day later, the UP government extended this order statewide.
The matter will now be heard on Friday, July 26.
“This is a directive that should not have been passed. It was inherently discriminatory and it is a relief that it has been stayed,” Aakar Patel told BOOM. “Long live our Constitution. And may we always protect it,” Mahua Moitra tweeted reacting to the top court's order.
Government order discriminatory, resulting in economic boycott: Plea in SC
The Muzzafarnagar order mandating the display of names was challenged in the Supreme Court days after it was issued ahead of the Kanwar Yatra that began today. Senior Advocate CU Singh, representing APCR, said apart from UP, many other states have jumped on the “bandwagon” and issued similar orders.
In some states, non-compliance of the order would result in a financial penalty.
Police authorities of these states have taken it upon themselves to identify people belonging to specific religious minorities and subjecting them to an “economic boycott,” Singh submitted.
Representing TMC MP Mahua Moitra, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi said Kanwar Yatras have been happening for decades. People across religions have been helping and serving the kanwariyas, he added. Singhvi said the orders raised a larger issue of “exclusion by identity”.
Singhvi questioned the rational nexus of the order and further submitted that under the Food Safety Act, the existing laws are strict laws for those serving non-vegetarian food are strict. Moreover, Singhvi said, “There are many pure veg restaurants run by Hindus but may have Muslim employees, can I say I will not eat there? Because the food is somehow touched by them [Muslim employees]?”
