As several hoardings with pictures of those who have been served recovery notices over damage to properties during anti-CAA protests in Lucknow have sprung up in the city, those named in these posters have expressed fear for their life and liberty.
Sarwan Ram Darapuri, a 77-year-old retired IPS officer who was picked up for allegedly inciting violence during the protests, told THE WEEK, “The matter is sub-judice. The defamatory aspect of these hoardings is just one thing. By putting our names and addresses below our photographs, the government has put into danger our life and liberty. Would the government take responsibility if any untoward incident were to occur with us as over 100 such hoardings have come up?”
On December 19, the anti-CAA protests, for which a call had been given well in advance, turned violent with stone pelting and arson in Lucknow. Almost 200 arrests were made in the state capital and several people jailed without following the due process of presenting them before a judicial magistrate. Darapuri was already under house arrest when he was arrested under charge of inciting violence. Many of the arrested have since been granted bail. The government crackdown has, however, been severe with the declaration that the protesters will be made to pay for the loss of government property as calculated by various departments such as the police and the Public Works Department.
Ajay Kumar Lallu, the Congress state chief, told THE WEEK on Friday afternoon that he had received information of the hoardings just a couple of hours ago, while adding that he had not personally communicated it with the party’s central leadership. “There are multiple channels of communication and the leadership is aware of everything. We stand by all those who have protested peacefully and through democratic means,” he said. Though without a plan of action at the moment, Lallu said that his party would protest the move at the administrative, legislative and the judicial levels.
The district administration has served ‘joint and several liability’ notices of Rs 64 lakhs to 28 people who had been arrested during the anti-CAA protests. These notices were issued at the additional district magistrate level, which is a violation of the Supreme Court orders in Destruction of Public and Private Properties versus State of AP, (2009) 5 SCC 212 and Kodungallur Film Society vs Union of India (2010) 10 SCC 713. The Supreme Court in these orders has stated, “the power to compute damages and investigate liability for destruction of public property is to be exercised either by the serving/retired High Court Judge or retired District Judge as a Claims Commissioner”. More recently, the High Court of Allahabad had (Petition 1927 of 2020) dismissed a notice for recovery of damage to public property by an additional district magistrate as it did not follow the procedure laid down by the Supreme Court of India.
Darapuri said, “We have not been served with recovery notices personally though many copies of the same are floating around.”
One copy of the said notice accessed by THE WEEK puts the total amount to be recovered at Rs 64 lakhs. This amount is to be recovered from a single individual if possible (with that single individual then recovering the amount from the others) or jointly from the various people named in these notices.
Darapuri has, meanwhile, written to the Principal Secretary (Home), SSP, DM and Police Commissioner of Lucknow, praying for ‘immediate removal of the hoardings’ and for ‘action against the guilty officers’.
“If any untoward incident were to happen with any of the named, the entire responsibility for it shall lie with the district administration and the government,” reads his letter.
