Direct Yogi govt to lift order to display eatery owners’ details: Apoorvanand

Display of personal identities of the owners and staff of eateries is neither backed by law nor necessary for the purpose of public order or food safety compliance, the Supreme Court ruled while granting an interim stay on instructions issued by the Uttar Pradesh government.

In defiance of the 'stay', the UP government on 25 June repeated the instructions that were issued last year, a petition submitted on behalf of Delhi University professor and public activist Apoorvanand points out.

“As in the previous year, the name of the operator should be clearly displayed at each shop” along the route of the Kanwar Yatra, which began on 11 July and will continue until 9 August. The annual pilgrimage involves collecting holy water from the river Ganga at Gomukh or Haridwar and carried to Kashi and other religious shrines associated with Lord Shiva.

While the pilgrimage is completed on foot, often over several days and sometimes a week, there are no restrictions on pilgrims eating non-vegetarian food deemed to be ‘pure’. A new addition this year is the requirement to display a QR code outside eateries to make their personal details accessible to the public.

While the UP government’s instruction cites registration rules and licensing requirements, Apoorvanand's petition points out that these rules merely stipulate that the name of the proprietor be displayed inside the establishment at a place where it is easily accessible to inspectors. The rules do not require details of the proprietor, manager and employees to be displayed outside and shared with the public.

The petition refers to multiple orders by the Supreme Court saying the government’s instructions should not affect the privacy and dignity of citizens. The injunctions or instructions by state governments must also be backed by a legitimate objective, be proportionate, suitable and necessary, the Supreme Court has held in the past.

The petition points out that in multiple ground reports in the first week of July, media outlets have reported vigilante groups demanding that proprietors remove their trousers to show that they are not circumcised. Media outlets like The Telegraph, Hindustan Times and India Today, the petition says, have reported on highway eateries being vandalised by unruly mobs.

The unreasonable requirement of displaying names of proprietors, managers and employees has enabled mischievous elements to harass eatery owners belonging to other faiths. Several videos depicting violent clashes, vandalism and abuse have been circulating on social media. The disclosure of names had no effect on pilgrims, it seems, some of whom even turned on Hindus owning roadside dhabas on the flimsiest of pretexts.

One such victim confided on camera that a group of pilgrims, who had ordered plain dal, were mistakenly served a plate of dal tadka ordered by another group of customers. The sight of onion in the dal tadka was enough for the pilgrims to ransack the eatery and escape after looting cans of soft drink stored in a fridge.

The almost-month-long pilgrimage is a nightmare for residents and commuters in Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, and Shamli in UP and other places in neighbouring Uttarakhand. Restrictions have been placed on loud music and DJs on the route this year, but it is too early to see any impact so far.

The UP police and administration justify their ‘appeasement’ of unruly pilgrims by pointing out that the approach is meant to keep them in good humour and avoid confrontations. With 2-3 crore pilgrims taking to the highway, they argue, the priority is to move them fast and without getting into trouble.