Allahabad HC stays recovery notice to CAA protester

The Allahabad High Court has stayed recovery notice issued to a Kanpur man, for allegedly destroying public properties during the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protest in the city that began on December 19.

In an interim relief to the petitioner Mohammad Faizan, the bench of Justice Pankaj Naqvi and Justice Saurabh Shyam Shamshery on Thursday stayed the notice issued by the additional DM saying that the Supreme Court was already examining the legality of such orders.

Faizan's counsel had challenged the recovery notice, pleading that the recovery notice was issued by an ADM whereas, the Supreme Court had unequivocally provided that such an order can be issued only by a serving or retried high court judge, or retired district judge as ‘claims commissioner'.

This is significant since majority of the other recovery notices issued to protesters across the state have been issued by local administrative officials.

The bench directed the state government to file a counter-affidavit within a month. The court directed to list this case in the week commencing April 20, 2020 before the appropriate bench for the next hearing. This will also be subject to the outcome of the proceedings before the Supreme Court.-IANS