Nishka Srinivas Veluvali
Published On: January 07, 2022 at 20:55 IST
The Bombay High Court endorsed that nobody has a Fundamental Right on public holidays it is the policy matter of the Government.
The Division Bench of Justice Gautam Patel and Madhav Jamdar noted, “There is no legally enforceable right that can be said to have been infringed. Nobody has a fundamental right to a public holiday”.
The High Court observed this while quashing the Petition requesting to declare August 2 as a public holiday on account of Dadra & Nagar Haveli Independence Day.
The Bench observed that there h ave been many public holidays maybe it is time to deduce it but not to increase it.
The Petition was filed through Advocate Bhavesh Parmar, the Petition stated that August 2 1954 was when the Dadra & Nagar Haveli were liberated from Portuguese rule and became a part of India.
This day was a marked as public holiday from 1954 to 2020 which was later stopped on 29 July, 2021.
The Petition displayed comparison between the August 15 Independence day being public holiday and questioned why the same cannot be applied to the Dadra and Nager Haveli Independence Day.
The Petitioner also submitted the references of the Division bench of the Bombay High Court Order of 2019 that made Good Friday a Gazetted holiday in Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Diu, Daman.
However, the High Court denied to make the Order applicable to the present Petition stating that both of situations stand on separate footings.
The Court even opined that the 2019 Order was passed on the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) with regard to the Gazetted holidays that is making the public holiday a compulsory one and not the optional one.