The Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court has admitted a suo motu petition in a case pertaining to the state government requisitioning school buses and declaring holiday in five districts in view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rally, held in Jhabua district early this week.
The rally was organised to mark the 75th anniversary of Quit India Movement and to announce the beginning of Tiranga Yatra from Bhabhara, which is the birth place of freedom fighter Chandra Shekhar Azad, in Jhabua district.
The issue was raised by senior advocate Anand Mohan Mathur and Justice P.K. Jaiswal admitted it as a suo motu petition.
Mathur told reporters that the registrar general of Jabalpur High Court has given his consent to proceed the case as a suo motu petition. Pointing out that district collectors do not have the right to allot school buses for such political rallies, he said the decision of Indore collector falls in the purview of infringement of constitutional rights. “The decision is a clear violation of Article 14, 21 (A), 45 and 46 of the Constitution,” added.
Mathur said the district collector falsely cited bad weather as the reason for declaring holiday even though there was no such alert from Met department.
Modi is the first prime minister to visit Bhabhara, now known as Chandra Shekhar Azad Nagar. He also chose to address Kashmiri youth on International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples from here during his visit. Jhabua, which is near Gujarat border, is a tribal district inhabited by Bhil tribe.
During his visit, Modi had paid homage at Azad’s memorial and launched Azadi 70 Saal, Yaad Karo Qurbani campaign.
