SC notice to UP, Uttarakhand govts on QR code directive on Kanwar Yatra route

The Supreme Court bench issued notice to the state government and posted the plea filed by academician Apoorvanand Jha and others on July 22

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought response of the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments on a petition challenging the directive mandating display of QR codes on food stall owners along the ‘kanwar’ yatra route revealing the names and identities of owners.

The court will hear the matter next on July 22. (PTI photo)

The Kanwar Yatra began on July 11 and is expected to conclude by August 9. The court will hear the matter next on July 22.

The court was hearing separate applications filed by Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra and professor Apoorvanand Jha challenging the June 25 order issued by the UP administration requiring shop owners to display QR codes containing details of shop ownership outside their establishment.

The applications pointed out that such a directive violated a July 22, 2024 order passed by the top court when the state was prohibited from coercing food stall owners to display their identities being in breach of their right to privacy.

A bench of justices MM Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh issued notice on the applications and sought a response from the two state governments before the next date of hearing on Tuesday.

Senior advocate Shadan Farasat appearing for Moitra told the court that the matter required urgent consideration as the June 25 directive is already being implemented. He requested for an early date but the bench kept the matter after a week to facilitate responses from the state governments.

Jha, who is one of the petitioners who approached the court against similar directive last year, cited a press released issued by the UP government on June 25.

He said, “The new measures mandate the display of QR codes on all eateries along the Kanwar route, which reveal the names and identities of the owners, thereby achieving the same discriminatory profiling that was previously stayed by this court.”

While dealing with the issue last year, the top court on July 22, 2024 issued an interim stay on the enforcement of such directives, observing that the display of personal identity was neither backed by law nor necessary for the stated purpose of public order or food safety compliance. The court had clarified that no food stall owner can be forced to display the identity while it was open for persons to do so voluntarily.

The directive issued last year required shopkeepers selling food items on the Kanwar Yatra route to display names of owners and the employees at a prominent place outside the shop, dhaba or restaurant. Besides Moitra and Jha, non-government organisation Association for Protection of Civil Rights had challenged the state’s order last year.

The present applications filed by Moitra and Jha accused the state authorities of “circumventing the stay” issued by the top court by reintroducing the same directive requiring the name of the shop owner to be clearly displayed at each shop in QR code form under the garb of public safety and maintenance of law and order.

“These steps effectively serve the same unconstitutional end through digital means, in wilful disobedience of this court’s directions,” Jha said in his application filed through advocate Akriti Chaubey.

Further, asking owners to reveal religious, caste identities couched under the garb of “lawful license requirements” breaches the right to privacy of the shop, dhaba, restaurant owners, the application said, adding that the owner’s identity is already displayed inside the shop on the license certificate.

Apprehending risk to fundamental rights of the shop owners, the application sought an immediate stay on the state’s directive.