No bar on eateries voluntarily displaying owner or employee names during Kanwar Yatra: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Friday extended its interim stay on the directives issues by certain States to display the names of shop/ restaurant owners and hawkers outside their premises during the Kanwar Yatra season [Association for Protection of Civil Rights vs State of Uttar Pradesh and Ors].A Bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and SVN Bhatti said that the interim order passed by it on July 22 will continue."The interim order shall continue," the Court said while giving time to the States of Uttar Pradesh (UP), Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh to file their responses.The Bench also made it clear that there is no restriction on shops/ eateries voluntarily displaying names of its owners and employees outside their premises."For voluntarily displaying names there is no issue. Our order says that they cannot be forced to put out owner names and employee names outside the dhaba," the Court remarked..The Supreme Court had on July 22 stayed the direction issued by authorities in various States to the shop owners and hawkers to display their names outside their premises during the Kanwar Yatra season. The Bench was hearing a batch of petitions challenging such a directive by the Uttar Pradesh Police in Muzaffarnagar.The directive was adopted by several neighbouring States as well.The decision was criticised on the ground that the same has been done to reveal the religious identity of the owners of such establishments and is discriminatory against Muslim shop owners.Association for Protection of Civil Rights, Delhi University Professor Apoorvanand with activist Aakar Patel, and Member of Parliament (MP) Mahua Moitra approached the top court in this regard.They contended that such directive was discriminatory and that only the kind of food being served - vegetarian or non-vegetarian - has to be disclosed and directive to disclose of name of the owner does not have the backing of any law.It was also submitted that Kanwar Yatras have been happening for decades and people from all religions including Muslims help the Kanwariyas on their way..In its response to the plea, the Uttar Pradesh government submitted that the directive was not issued to discriminate against any community but was rather done keeping in mind the strict dietary habits that Kanwariyas follow during the yatra and before."The Kanwariyas follow a strict vegetarian, satvik diet, eschewing onion, garlic and all other tamasic foods. Satvik food does not just mean the preparation of food without onions and garlic, but is also the manner of preparation of the food, similar to falhar during other festivals when fasting ceremonies are undertaken," the affidavit filed by UP government said.The idea behind the directives was transparency and informed choice of the consumer/Kanwaria regarding the food they eat during the period of the Yatra, keeping in mind their religious sentiments so that they don’t, even accidently, fall foul of their beliefs, it was submitted.Any Kanwariya mistakenly consuming food outside of their prescribed diet could lead to law and order situation, it was contended."Such situations would obviously lead to flare ups where lakhs and crores of people are walking barefoot carrying holy water. A mishap in the form of taking a meal unwittingly of a place that would have otherwise not been of their choice, could, for the Kanwariya, vitiate the entire Yatra, peace and tranquility in the area, the maintenance of which, is the bounden duty of the State," the UP government said.The government also pointed out that similar arrangements are made for other religions as well."For instance, traffic restrictions are in place all over the State during the holy festivals of Muharram and Eid (in fact, as is well known, arrangements are made for village fairs for the sale and purchase of goats during that period). Even the movement of pigs is restricted, as it would offend the religious sensibilities of the minority community, which by and large, consider pigs unclean and do not partake of pig meat," the State's affidavit said.Special arrangements are also made for Haj yatris, the affidavit pointed out..During the hearing today, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appearing for State of UP, contended that there is a requirement under law to display names of owners and employees.He also said that the interim order was passed without hearing the UP government. "It is my submission that first order was without hearing us. Our case was that owner's name to be put up on the board is requirement under law," he said.The Court then said that the same should be specifically stated by the UP government in its counter affidavit.The Uttarakhand government also made the same submission. "There is a law which mandates such disclosure," the Uttarakhand counsel said."Show us where all in your States have you sought such information to be put up," the Court said."Kanwariya is only in three States and not in the south," Rohatgi said."Let there a counter affidavit by State saying that it is appicable all across the (concerned) State," the Court remarked.It, however, reiterated that there is no bar on voluntary disclosure by shopkeepers."Suppose a shopkeeper wants to display the name then it is fine," Justice Roy underlined.The Court then allowed two weeks to the affected States to file their responses and posted the case for hearing after three weeks..Senior Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi, CU Singh and Huzefa Ahmadi with Advocates Shahrukh Alam, Shadan Farasat, Fauzia Shakil, Ujjwal Singh, Shivansh Saxena, Amit Bhandari, Gautam Bhatia, Prannv Dhawan, Abhishek Babbar, Shadab Azhar, Aman Naqvi, Harshit Anand, Natasha Maheshwari, Mreganka Kukreja, Akriti Chaubey, Sadhana Madhavan, Tamanna Pankaj and Shantanu Singh appeared for the petitioners..Live Coverage of hearing below.