On a plea for recovery of damages, by anti-CAA protestors, Delhi High court issued notices to authorities and asked to drop political parties in the amended memo.
The Current Development
A notice has been issued to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Delhi government and the Commissioner of Delhi Police. The Division Bench hearing the matter also asked to amend the memo and drop various political parties added as respondents in the plea.
The authorities have to file their responses on this issue and the next date for hearing is September 21.
The plea citing 2009 SC guidelines, while hearing In Re: Destruction of Public and Private Properties Vs State of A.P, seeks recovery of damages from persons involved in destruction, during the anti-CAA protest in Delhi which later lead to Delhi riots, resulting in 53 deaths,thousands injured and heavy damages to public property. The plea also requested the court to set up an independent machinery to assess the loss and recover the damages from identified persons.
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Advocate Yudhvir, in his plea states, “In such a situation it is desirable to issue writ of or in the nature of mandamus and/or any other appropriate writs, orders or directions, thereby setting up an independent machinery to investigate the damage caused during anti CAA Protest in Delhi and to award the damage caused during anti CAA Protest in Delhi and to award compensation related thereto and allow him to use all powers and measures mentioned in In Re: Destruction of Public and Private Properties Vs State of A.P ”
Previous Court’s Observation and Delhi Riot A Pre-Planned Conspiracy
While hearing a bail plea, Justice Subramonium Prasad of Delhi High Court made following observations, “The riots which shook the National Capital of the country in February 2020 evidently did not take place in a spur of the moment, and the conduct of the protestors who are present in the video footage which has been placed on record by the prosecution visibly portrays that it was a calculated attempt to dislocate the functioning of the Government as well as to disrupt the normal life of the people in the city,”
Read More” Delhi Riots were planned” – Delhi High Court says what everyone knew all along:”
Previously the Union Home Minister too had said that the Delhi riot seems to be a pre planned conspiracy. “The spread of riots on such a big scale in such a short time is not possible without a conspiracy. We have registered a case of conspiracy to probe this angle”
Yogi’s Playbook for Mafia and Rioters
The UP govt led by Yogi Adityanath was strict on rioters from the very first go. The Citizenship ( Amendment) Act Protests spread in some parts of UP too, protestors created mayhem and caused a lot of destruction to public property. UP govt with proper video analysis identified violent protestors and displayed their faces on hoardings in public places with name and addresses and issued notices of recovery of damages to public property.
The government then had no stringent law to punish such rioters and anti-social elements, so through the ordinance route it made Uttar Pradesh Recovery of Damages to Public and Private Properties Ordinance,2020 and later made it an act through the normal assembly route.
The Current notice by the Delhi High Court can be seen as a vindication of the actions taken by the Yogi government in Uttar Pradesh. The Yogi “Bulldozer on Mafia” and Recovery of damages to public property from the violent protestors seems to be influencing many other states and captures the spirit of SC guidelines on recovery of damages from protestors.
