LUCKNOW: The UP government on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court against an Allahabad high court order directing it to take down the ‘name and shame’ hoardings installed across Lucknow city against 57 persons accused of “vandalising public properties” during anti-CAA protests on December 19, 2019. The appeal would be taken up on Thursday by a vacation bench of Justice UU Lalit and Aniruddha Bose.

Confirming this, UP advocate general Raghevendra Singh told TOI that the government challenged the HC order though a special leave petition in the SC. “We will take up the same points in the SC that we took up before the HC. There is one additional point about the right to privacy under Article 21. Our contention is that the details of all these persons were already in public domain through print and electronic media and, therefore, there is no question of breach of privacy,” he said.

Meanwhile, three of those whose photographs are on the hoardings — retired IPS officer and activist SR Darapuri, Congress member Sadaf Jafar and theatre personality Deepak Kabir — will file a caveat on Thursday against the government’s plea. “The caveat would ensure that before the court delivers any order, it would have to hear us out,” Darapuri said.

He told TOI that they learnt about the SC petition very late on Wednesday. Hence, their lawyers could not reach the court in time.

Sources in UP home department added that till the hearing in the apex court, no action was likely to be initiated by the government to remove the hoardings. The court and government offices were closed for Holi on Tuesday and as soon as they reopened a day later, the government submitted its plea in the SC, challenging the high court order calling the Lucknow administration’s move an “unwarranted interference in the privacy of people”.

On Saturday, the high court had taken suo motu cognizance of hoardings put up across Lucknow last week, carrying addresses and photographs of 57 persons who were accused of damaging properties in the violence during anti-CAA protests on December 19, 2019. The government had already issued recovery notices against these persons.

Delivering its order on Monday, the high court directed the government to immediately remove the hoardings and file a status report by March 16.



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