The Hindu : National : 'Penalty on political parties unwarranted'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 24, 2004

National

National

'Penalty on political parties unwarranted'

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 23. The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has described as an "unwarranted incursion into the democratic right to protest," the decision of the Bombay High Court to impose a penalty of Rs. 20 lakhs each on two political parties for calling a bandh last year.

In a statement issued here today, the CITU secretary, W.R. Varadarajan, said it was deplorable that the Municipal Commission of the city had joined the public interest litigation petition with an unsubstantiated allegation of loss of Rs. 50 crores owing to the bandh.

"The willingness of the judiciary to accept any allegation of "use of force" on the part of democratic organisations as an axiomatic truth and proceed to issue directives on that basis is unacceptable to the general democratic movement.

It has been found that even consumer forums have started awarding compensation against imaginary loss on account of collective action by workers,'' he said.

The CITU has called for appropriate steps by the Centre to undo the "pernicious impact'' of such "judicial excesses".

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