NEW
DELHI: The Supreme
Court refused on Friday to entertain a PIL that alleged that
political organisations were resorting to hartals to hoodwink repeated
judicial pronouncements banning strike and bandh calls, which paralysed normal
life.
A bench of Chief Justice J S
Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud said, "Hartals can
never be unconstitutional. Right to protest is a valuable constitutional right.
How can we say hartals are unconstitutional."
Having failed to convince the bench to entertain the PIL, the
petitioner decided to withdraw the plea.
Courts have ruled on strike, bandh and hartal calls given by
political outfits for two decades now. The Kerala high court in Bharat Kumar
case in 1997 had said, "When properly understood, the calling of a bandh
entails the restriction of free movement of the citizen and his right to carry
on his avocation and if the legislature does not make any law either
prohibiting it or curtailing it or regulating it, we think that it is the duty
of the court to step in to protect the rights of the citizen so as to ensure
that the freedom." An SC bench headed by then Chief Justice J S Verma had
upheld this order.
However, over the years, the courts have not clarified the
difference between strike, bandh and hartal.
Times of India.
