The Allahabad High Court on Monday ordered the Yogi Adiyatnath-led Uttar Pradesh government to remove all the hoardings containing names, address and photos of those who were accused of violence during protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act in Lucknow.
The court asked the District Magistrate, Lucknow to remove the hoardings and submit a compliance report by March 16.
The order comes after the Allahabad High court on Sunday reserved its order for today and pulled up the state government and called its act as “highly unjust”. The High court termed the act as an absolute encroachment on personal liberty of individuals.
A two-judge bench comprising justices Govind Mathur and Ramesh Sinha said, “We hope good sense would prevail” on the state and it would remove the hoardings soon.
The court further said, “So far as legality part is concerned, suffice to state that no law is in existence permits the State to place the banners with personal data of the accused from whom compensation is to be charged.”
The court had taken up the matter so mute on Sunday morning.
The Uttar Pradesh government on had put pictures of 29 accused at various places in Lucknow stating they are joint and severally liable to pay Rs 64,37,637 to the government.
Lead picture: UNI