Supreme Court stays UP and Uttarakhand govt. directions to shops along the Kanwar Yatra route to display the owner’s and staff’s name
Today (July 22, 2024, Monday), the Supreme Court (SC) bench constituting Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice SVN Bhatti stayed the directions issued by the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments to the shop owners and hawkers to display their names and staff’s names outside the shops during the Kanwar Yatra season. The bench issued notice to the States where the Kanwar Yatra takes place, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, in 3 writ petitions. It further listed the matter for hearing on Friday (July 26, 2024). The order of the top Court reads, “Until the returnable date...we deem it appropriate to pass interim order prohibiting the enforcement of the above directives. In other words, the food sellers (including dhaba owners, restaurants, shops, fruits and vegetable sellers, hawkers, etc.) may be required to display the kind of food that they are selling to the Kanwariyas. But they must not be forced to display the names/identities of owners or the staff deployed in those establishments.”
During the proceedings today, Senior Advocate Abhishek Singhvi who appeared for the petitioners argued, “You go to a restaurant depending on the menu, not who is serving. The idea of this directive is exclusion by identity. This is not the Republic of India we envisaged in the Constitution...” He added, “There are a lot of 'pure vegetarian' restaurants run by Hindus... but they may have Muslim employees. Can I say I won't eat there? Because food is somehow 'touched' by them?” SA Singhvi further contended “It has never been done before... has no statutory backing. No law gives police power to do this. The directive is for every hath-gaadi (hand-cart), tea-stall... giving of names of owners and employees does not serve any purpose...” In this context, Justice Bhatti shared his experience, “On that, I am completely with you. Without disclosing the name of the city. I will share with you. There were two vegetarian hotels, one by Hindu and one by Muslim. I went to the latter because I preferred the hygiene standards there. He was a Dubai returnee. But he displayed everything on the board.”
Moreover, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra also filed a petition stating that the Uttar Pradesh government is targeting Muslim-owned businesses. In her plea, she said, “Since June 2023, Respondent No. 1 (State of UP) continued to empower and embolden the anti-social elements by actively targeting Muslim-owned businesses based on fabricated and malicious information circulated by the anti-social elements. Respondent No. 1, through acts of commission and omission, created conditions for the complete economic boycott of Muslim minorities on the pretext of their ‘impure’ dietary choices.” She added, “In forcing the disclosure of the names of proprietors and even those of their staff, on the stated ground of respecting pilgrims’ dietary choices, makes it clear that ‘dietary choices’ is a pretext, or a proxy, for the compelled disclosure of personal — and, in this case, religious — identity, through the disclosure of names. The upshot of this is to create a socially-enforced economic boycott on Muslim shop owners and workers, and the loss of their livelihoods.”
The plea filed by political commentator Apoorvanand and activist Aakar Patel argued, “These directives promote discrimination solely based on religious and caste identity, as they do not require the display of food items being served or a statement that no non-vegetarian or non-satvik food is being served, but only the display of religious or caste identity explicit in one’s name…directly breaches Article 15 of the Constitution.” After hearing the contentions today, the SC bench stayed the directions imposed by the State to shops along the Kanwar Yatra route and listed the matter for hearing on Friday.
