New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government has been directed by the Supreme Court to refund all recovery made through recovery notices issued by the government for damage caused to public and private property during anti-CAA protests. In this case, the court said that when the notice has been withdrawn, the procedure laid down will also have to be followed.
At the same time, the Supreme Court was urged by the Additional Advocate General of Uttar Pradesh not to take the order of refund of recovery. In fact, the Advocate General says that the amount recovered has gone into crores. Also, it will show that the whole process done by the administration was illegal. However, ignoring this request, the Board has asked the Tribunal to approach the tribunal to follow the correct procedure for issuance of notice.
The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday told the Supreme Court that it has withdrawn action and 274 recovery notices initiated against anti-CAA protesters in 2019 for damage to public and private property. A bench of Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Suryakant said the state government will refund the entire amount of crores of rupees which was recovered from the alleged protesters as part of the action initiated in 2019. The court, however, gave the Uttar Pradesh government the liberty to take action against the alleged anti-CAA protesters under the new law.
The Uttar Pradesh Government Compensation Act was notified on 31 August 2020 for the destruction of public and private property. The bench rejected the argument of additional Advocate General Garima Prasad that instead of directing funds to the protesters and the state government, they should approach the Claims Tribunal. The Uttar Pradesh government had acted on the compensation notices issued to alleged anti-CAA protesters in December 2019, for which the apex court had on February 11 reprimanded the government.
Along with this, the court had given the last opportunity to the government to withdraw the action and warned that its action was against the law, so the court would quash it. The court had said that the action initiated in December 2019 is against the law which has been interpreted by the Supreme Court. The court was hearing a petition filed by Parvez's Arif Titu. The petition had requested that the notices sent to the alleged protesters be quashed.