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The Times of India | JULY 27, 2004
Editorial
Democracy, chaos go hand in hand
'Come see/ the blood in the streets', the poet Pablo Neruda famously
said. He would have perhaps penned the poem differently if he had
been in India, replacing blood with 'bandhs' for the benefit of our
venerable judges. What are our cities all about? After flower power
and poetic angst, we have been reduced to 9-to-5 office-goers, losing
ourselves in the anonymity of chartered buses and city traffic. As
Pete Seeger said of the US, we box ourselves into a particular way of
life, seeking comfort in routine so that it distracts from our
existential vacuum. A bandh, rally or strike threatens that sense of
tranquillising order. Inside our static cars and buses, we would at
once be introduced to something beyond ourselves - anything from a
demonstration against the nuclear weapons to the TA/DA travails of
government employees. Such chaos promotes a constructive engagement
of the individual with social processes. At the very least, he would
realise that there is more to the world than earning one's daily
bread. The benefits of this engagement cannot be monetarily computed;
therefore, it is jejune to look at bandhs in terms of crores of
'production loss'. Does this obsession with production factor in the
possibility of a daily wager creating a painting, song or sculpture
because of the disruption?
Bandhs are often called by louts for unjustifiable ends, but so what?
If we are a decent democracy, we must regard forces and symbols of
order with an element of suspicion and irreverence. Remember, the
Emergency is still sarcastically associated with trains running on
time. It is not surprising that an ex-cop and an ex-bureaucrat were
at the forefront of the Bombay high court petition against bandhs. If
the petitioners were peeved with the politics of Shiv Sena, they
could have chosen a hundred better ways to express their anguish. A
concern for decency in public life must be placed in a democratic
perspective. The yearning for a superficial kind of order has assumed
disturbing proportions today.
o o o
July 24, 2004
Press Statement
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued
the following statement:
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) expresses
its strong disagreement with the Mumbai High Court verdict ordering
two political parties to pay compensation for a bandh they had
called. The right to dissent and to organise voluntary protest
actions are inherent and inalienable rights of the people in a
democratic polity which are enshrined in the Indian Constitution.
If such rights are curbed and or stifled either by courts or by
executive intervention, it will only encourage the forces that stand
for autocratic rule or violence. In case of violation of existing
laws, action can be taken against the perpetrators as per the
provisions.
The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) urges upon the Central Government to
pass necessary legislation to protect the rights of the people. The
right to organise strikes, bandhs or hartals were enjoyed by the
Indian people even during British rule.
o o o
The Telegraph
July 25, 2004
Ban architects support fine
R. VENKATARAMAN
New Delhi, July 24: The architects of two Supreme Court judgments
banning bandhs by political parties and "strike in any form" by
government employees today welcomed Bombay High Court's decision to
penalise the BJP and the Shiv Sena for calling a bandh.
Both Justice V.N. Khare, a former chief justice, and Justice M.B.
Shah said it was a "good beginning and a correct step in the right
direction".
The Sena and the BJP had called the bandh on July 30 last year in
protest against a series of blasts in the city. The high court had
yesterday slapped a fine of Rs 20 lakh each on the two parties based
on the two apex court judgments.
Justice Khare's verdict had come in a case involving a political
party in Kerala. In his ruling, the judge had said no party could
resort to bandhs and force others to participate in it.
In his ruling, in the case of about two lakh Tamil Nadu government
employees dismissed by the Jayalalithaa regime for going on strike,
Justice Shah had said employees and trade unions representing them
had "no legal, fundamental, moral or justifiable and equitable right
to strike".
In a democracy, government employees are part and parcel of the
governing body and owe duty to society, the bench had said.
Justice Shah, now the president of the National Consumer Dispute
Redressal Commission, said "in the name of democracy and democratic
right to protest, you cannot damage public and private properties and
infringe upon the fundamental rights of others".
"Think of the daily wagers, hawkers, thela-wallahs... they have to
earn their daily bread... perhaps that evening meal, the only one
meal they earn after a whole day's work.... You cannot take away that
right... that inalienable fundamental right to life in the name of
anything, leave alone democracy," he said.
As a judge in Bombay High Court, before his elevation to the Supreme
Court, Justice Shah had delivered a verdict, much before the Kerala
case, banning processions by political parties.
Both the judges said a citizen could file an FIR with police for
"criminal trespass, criminal intimidation and also claim damages for
personal or public property". The Indian Penal Code provides for such
a complaint, they pointed out.
Justice Shah, however, added that after filing an FIR, the question
of proof would arise and it would be difficult to prove who the
actual culprit was in a procession or a bandh situation.
"So, law has to evolve itself and evolution is always slow... it is
only a beginning and slowly, regulatory laws like restricting a
procession or place of protest to a particular time of the day or
evening and earmarking a place are all part of it," the judge said.
o o o
Indian Express
July 24, 2004
Compensate for bandh: HC
HC strikes back, asks Sena, BJP to pay Rs 20 lakh 'damages' each
towards a citizens' fund
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
MUMBAI, JULY 23: The Bombay High Court today ordered the Shiv
Sena-BJP combine to pay Rs 20 lakh each to the city of Mumbai, for
calling a bandh and causing ''hardships to lakhs of people''.
''This is a fit case where the Shiv Sena-BJP should be directed to
pay exemplary damages to the lakhs,'' observed the court. Last year,
the combine had called for a Mumbai bandh on July 30, to protest the
string of bomb blasts. They claimed that it was a spontaneous gesture
of the people.
But a group of NGOs and other leading citizens of Mumbai - Gerson da
Cunha, Alyque Padamsee and B.G. Deshmukh - filed a Public Interest
Litigation in the HC, asking for a penalty for the combine. They
estimated the day-long bandh had cost the city a loss of Rs 50 crore.
The HC instructed that the money should be kept in a separate account
that would be dedicated towards a separate fund that would be
utilised to provide services to the citizens of the city. Taking
strong exception to the bandh, the bench rejected the contention of
the combine that the strike was a spontaneous gesture by the citizens
of Mumbai to protest the blasts in the city. ''The bandh violates the
fundamental right of the citizens,'' observed the bench. Especially
causing hardship to the lakhs of daily wage earners and lakhs of
others whose income was affected.
While there was no factual data available to ascertain the cost
suffered by citizens, the court felt that ''there was no dispute that
the loss suffered by the city was in crores of rupees''. The city was
considered to be the financial capital of the country and the damage
was substantial.
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