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Saturday, Jul 24, 2004

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National

Bombay High Court fines Sena-BJP for calling bandh

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, JULY 23. The Bombay High Court today fined the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party Rs. 20 lakhs each for organising a bandh on July 30 last year. The order was passed on a public interest litigation petition filed by prominent citizens, including the former Cabinet Secretary, B.G. Deshmukh, Alyque Padamsee, and AGNI (Action for Governance and Networking in India), a citizens' organisation.

A Division Bench of the Bombay High Court, consisting of the acting Chief Justice A.P. Shah and Justice S.U. Kamdar, ordered that the two political parties deposit Rs. 20 lakhs each with the State Government. This amount, however, should not go into the general revenue fund but be earmarked for a specific public utility that would benefit the citizens of Mumbai.

While the parties had argued that the bandh was called to protest against the killing of innocent people in the serial bomb blasts that had occurred in Mumbai and was largely peaceful and spontaneous, the petitioners held that the bandh was forced on the people, was illegal and violative of the Supreme Court's November 1997 order banning bandhs. They also claimed damages of Rs. 50 crores on the basis of the GDP loss to the city for one day of stoppage.

Counsel for the petitioners, Aspi Chenoy, said the damages awarded by the court were exemplary. "The principle here is compensation for damages and to act as a deterrent."

Although the Supreme Court had confirmed the earlier Kerala High Court order making bandhs illegal, the petitioners felt that such a declaration without a sting was no good, said Mr. Chenoy. That is why they moved for damages. "This is a landmark judgment in some ways because it lays down the principle of public accountability."

`Bandh not same as strike'

Says Gerson D'Cunha from AGNI: "A bandh is not the same as a strike where workers lay down their tools. Here we are forced not to work." The ruling, he felt, would hurt the pockets of the political parties. "The principle established by this ruling is a thousand times more valuable than the money imposed as a fine." But, he added, this ruling also "imposes a duty on citizens to act in a watchdog role."

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