Bombay HC notice to Ambedkar on January 3 bandh

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has issued a notice to Bharip Bahujan Mahasangh leader Prakash Ambedkar, who called a strike across the state after the Bhima-Koregaon riots on January 1. 

The high court was hearing a petition filed by two NGOs, Action for Good Governance and Networking and Public Concern for Trust, through their lawyer Archit Jaykar. 

The petition challenged the constitutional validity of the January 3 bandh. They also sought that all the persons  responsible for the bandh should be booked and prosecuted.

They asked the court to book them under the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984, the Maharashtra Prevention of Defacement to Public Property Act, 1985 and Criminal Procedure code. The court also needs to implement recommendation given by the Thomas committee and the Nariman committee and Rs 50 crore should be recovered from the protestors.

The plea further stated that the bandh violated the judgements of the Supreme Court and HC, which says that calling a bandh is unlawful and in violation of the Constitution of India as well as violation of the prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984. The petition also stated that damage caused by protestors and deployment of police personnel are all an additional burden on the state exchequer, which will be recovered from the tax paying citizens.

It said that the loss suffered by the Public Exchequer in the city of Mumbai due to the bandh alone was to the tune of approximately Rs 800-1,000 crore. The city came to a crippling halt, public property was destroyed, and the ordinary citizen’s daily routine was disrupted. The petitioner held the state government, the Director General of Police and Mumbai Police commissioner responsible for failure in their duty.

Special Public Prosecutor Hiten Venegaonkar had opposed the petition saying Rs 50 crore is an approximate figure and there is need to ascertain the exact amount. He also argued that Prevention of Damage to Public property Act is yet to be enacted. He also argued that case against Ambedkar, who called the bandh couldn’t be registered but individual protestors were booked for creating disruption in that particular area. 

The court asked state government to file affidavit pertaining to the petition and also issued notice to Prakash Ambedkar and people of Samasta Hindu Aghadi and Shivraj Prathisthan who were responsible for the bandh.