Shivani Thakur
Published on: June 15, 2022 at 16:44 IST
Six former Supreme Court and High Court Judges, as well as six senior advocates, have petitioned the Supreme Court to take Suo Moto notice of the recent acts of bulldozing dwellings of people who demonstrated in Prayagraj over certain BJP spokespersons’ offensive utterances.
The Petition claimed reports of Government brutality and repression of citizens in Uttar Pradesh. They claimed that rather than listening to protesters, the Uttar Pradesh administration appears to have sanctioned violent actions against them.
The Petition added that the State Chief Minister had directed that the National Security Act, 1980, and the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986, be invoked against the protesters.
“Videos of young men in police custody being beaten with lathis, houses of protesters being demolished without notice or any cause of action, and protesters from the minority Muslim community being chased and beaten by the police, are circulating on social media, shaking the conscience of the nation. Such a brutal clampdown by a ruling administration is an unacceptable subversion of the rule of law,” the Petition said.
“It is a violation of the rights of citizens, and makes a mockery of the Constitution and fundamental rights guaranteed by the State,” it added.
Demolitions, if continued, are a sort of collective extrajudicial retribution resulting from an unconstitutional state policy.