UP govt withdraws recovery notices against anti-CAA protesters: Officials

The UP government has withdrawn notices sent to the anti-CAA protestors seeking to recover damages, government officials familiar with then matter said.

The Uttar Pradesh (UP) government has abandoned its plan to seize properties of people involved in the December 2019 protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) after the Supreme Court pointed out last week that the state may have overreached itself.

Hoardings with details of 57 people who were issued recovery notices, after the anti-CAA protests, were put up in Lucknow earlier. (File)

The government has withdrawn notices sent to the protestors seeking to recover damages, government officials familiar with then matter said.

“The state government has withdrawn the notices for the recovery of damages,” said a senior officer, wishing not to be named.

According to the officials, additional district magistrates (ADMs), who headed the recovery claims tribunals in different districts, issued 274 notices for recovery of damages. including 95 issued to protestors in Lucknow.

On February 11, the Supreme Court observed that the state government had not followed due process.

“You have become complainant; you have become witness; you have become prosecutor...and then you attach properties of people. Is it permissible under any law?” a bench of Justice Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and Justice Surya Kant had asked the state government’s law officer.

In an earlier case, the apex court observed in 2009 that the power to compute damages and investigate liability for destruction of public property is to be exercised either by a serving or retired high court judge or a retired district judge as a claims commissioner.

The anti-CAA protests turned violent at some places in December 2019. Some protestors allegedly vandalised and torched public property in many cities, including Lucknow.

The state government issued notices to recover the cost of properties damaged, relying on the Allahabad high court’s 2011 judgment in Mohammad Shujaddin versus State of UP case. It, however, ignored the Supreme Court guidelines issued in 2009 and subsequently in 2018.

“If the state government has decided to withdraw notices, it’s a welcome move. But the government has done so under the pressure of Supreme Court,” SR Darapuri, a former IPS officer, who too was given a notice, said.