UP justifies ordinance to recover damages to public property by citing violence in Kashmir

Foreign countries, Uttar Pradesh Government claimed in the Allahabad High Court, sponsored the riots in Delhi and the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens.

In an affidavit justifying the promulgation of the “UP Recovery of Damage to Public and Private Property” ordinance, 2020, the UP Government claimed that cross-border terrorism, violence, riots and protests had gone up after the suspension of Article 370 in J & K.

The affidavit also claimed that attacks on the army, police and government buildings and vehicles had also gone up after August, 2019.

The UP Government’s claim is in sharp contrast to the official position of the Union Government, which has maintained that there was no violence and not even a squeak of protest after Jammu & Kashmir was downgraded and bifurcated into two Union Territories.

What is more, the affidavit cites terror attacks at Anantnag in Kashmir to justify the ordinance in Uttar Pradesh.

The affidavit had been filed before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court in response to a petition filed by lawyer and activist Dr Nutan Thakur challenging the ordinance.

Even more bizarre has been the state government’s assertion in the affidavit that it was promulgated in pursuance to a Supreme Court order passed eleven years ago in 2009. The affidavit claimed that similar provisions were contemplated in the past, in the year 2000, 2014, 2017 and 2018 but not followed through.

The affidavit says that it is in these circumstances that the Ordinance was issued to protect state government properties and religious institutions.

The state government, however, disposed of the petition as infructuous since the ordinance has since then been replaced by the Recovery of Damages to Property Act, passed by the state legislative assembly, where the ruling BJP has an absolute majority.