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The court also said if the three parties do no file their response, then ”consequences will follow”.
The public interest litigation (PIL) was filed by four senior citizens, including former Mumbai police commissioner Julio Ribeiro, challenging the one-day bandh called by the three constituents of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on October 11, 2021 to protest the death of farmers in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri. A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice M S Karnik on Tuesday said the political parties shall file their affidavits in three weeks if they wish to. “If not, then we (court) shall proceed to hear the plea without their replies. If they (political parties) do not file their affidavits, then consequences will follow,” Chief Justice Datta said.
As per the plea, the bandh, called to express solidarity with the farmers’ protest over the now scrapped agri laws and against the violence in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district on October 3, had caused a loss of Rs 3,000 crore to the public exchequer.
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On Tuesday, additional government pleader Jyoti Chavan sought three more weeks to submit the affidavit.
Advocate R D Soni, appearing for the petitioners, told the court that no affidavit has so far been filed by any of the political parties, who are respondents in the petition.
The petition sought the high court to declare the bandh as unconstitutional and illegal, and direct the three political parties to pay compensation to the affected citizens.
The court on Tuesday granted three more weeks to the respondents to file their affidavits and posted the matter for further hearing after five weeks.