NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court refused on Friday to entertain a
PIL that alleged that political organisations were resorting to hartals to
hoodwink repeated judicial pronouncements banning strike and bandh calls, which
paralysed normal life.
A bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud
said, "Hartals can never be unconstitutional. Right to protest is a
valuable constitutional right. How can we say hartals are
unconstitutional."
Having failed to convince the bench to entertain the PIL, the
petitioner decided to withdraw the plea.
Courts have ruled on strike, bandh and hartal calls given by
political outfits for two decades now. The Kerala high court in Bharat Kumar
case in 1997 had said, "When properly understood, the calling of a bandh entails
the restriction of free movement of the citizen and his right to carry on his
avocation and if the legislature does not make any law either prohibiting it or
curtailing it or regulating it, we think that it is the duty of the court to
step in to protect the rights of the citizen so as to ensure that the
freedom....." SC bench headed by then Chief Justice J S Verma had upheld
this order.
//copy//- POTOOLS
