UP Tells High Court: Recovery of Damage To Property Law Brought In The Background Of Scrapping Of Article 370

Lucknow, Nov 9, 2020 || The Uttar Pradesh Government has said before Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court that the UP Recovery of Damage to Public and Private Property Ordinance, 2020 was passed in the background of the abolition of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir.

Advocate and activist Nutan Thakur had filed a Petition in High Court challenging the Ordinance, where the Counter Affidavit by the State Government says that it passed the ordinance in compliance of a 2009 Supreme Court order. It says that previously drafts were discussed in 2000, 2014, 2017 and 2018 but they did not reach any conclusion.

The affidavit says that after abolition of section 370, foreign sponsored demonstrations, protests, dharna, riots and violence, cross border terrorism has increased and tendency to damage the property of army, police force and government buildings and vehicles has increased. The attacks in Anantnag, the riots in Delhi, the uprising in Lucknow against CAA and NRC Bill are its examples.

The affidavit says that it is in these circumstances that the Ordinance was issued to protect the State properties and religious institutions. After passing of the Damages of Property Act, the petition has been disposed of by the High Court as having become infructuous.