The Yogi Adityanath government’s “name and shame” campaign w as halted today as the Allahabad High Court ordered that all posters and hoardings naming those accused of violence during protests against the controversial citizenship law be immediately removed. Citing the Right to Privacy as a fundamental human right recognised by the United Nations as well as the Supreme Court, the judges said the government’s move to display photographs and personal details of the accused on roadside hoardings was “an unwarranted interference in privacy”.
The Lucknow administration has to give a compliance report on the removal to the registrar general by March 16, the court said.
Sources said the hoardings – in which the persons named were asked to pay for damage to public property and warned that their property would be attached otherwise — were put up on instructions of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
The High Court had taken up issue on its own, asking the government to explain its position during a rare hearing on a Sunday, a court holiday. Senior advocate KK Rai, who attended the initial hearing at 10 am, said Chief Justice Govind Mathur had made some strong remarks on the issue, saying the government was “impinging on privacy, respect and freedom” and called it an “illegal move”.
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