Friday, Mar 28, 2003
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Kerala
By Our Staff Reporter
The petition, filed by M. K. Sasidaran, president, International Society for Preservation of Human Rights and Rule of Law, pointed out that the Supreme Court had already declared that calling for bandh was violative of the fundamental rights of the citizen. The same principles were applicable to hartal as well. In fact, `bandh' had now assumed the name `hartal' after it had been declared illegal. Normal life got disrupted during hartal and shops were forced to down their shutters. Hartals had now the same effect of a bandh. It amounted to coercing members of the public to keep indoors, without doing any work. Therefore, calling for hartals was violative of Articles 14 (equality before law) and 21 (right to life) of the Constitution. The petitioner pointed out that political parties registered under Section 29 A of the Representation of the People Act were liable to be deregistered by the Election Commission if they acted contrary to the regulations concerned. A political party was breaching the principles of democracy by calling for hartals. They were violating the mandate of Article 142 in disobeying the law laid down by the Supreme Court. The mandate of Article 51A to eschew violence and safeguard public properties was part of the fundamental duties of the citizen as well as political parties. Thus, political parties had no right to call a hartal as it entailed cancellation of registration by the Election Commission. While a general strike affected only the striking workforce, an entire people got affected by hartals. Though cases were registered by the police soon after the violent incidents during hartals, these were withdrawn due to political exigencies. According to the petitioner, the State had not been taking effective steps to prevent the holding of hartal or bandh. Hartal instilled fear in the minds of people. The police machinery was hardly effective to meet any eventualities. Therefore, services of the Army or Defence forces should be sought during hartals. In the recent hartals, the estimated loss came to more than Rs. 10 crores. However, the Government had not taken steps to recover the compensations from those who indulged in destruction of public properties. The petition also sought a directive to the Election Commission to take steps to cancel the registration of the CPI(M), CPI, Kerala Congress(J), Janata Dal, RSP and the Congress as they had acted in violation of the Constitution and breached the principles of democracy as contemplated under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act by holding hartals recently. The petition prayed for a directive to the State Government to assess the damage sustained by it during the two hartals held on March 11 and 15 called by the LDF and realise the loss from the LDF constituents.
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