Punjab and Haryana High Court. (File)A DAY after the Punjab and Haryana High Court issued a slew of directions as a precautionary measure to prevent any trouble at the contractual teachers’ protest which is scheduled for Sunday in Patiala, the High Court on Saturday refused to make any modification to its Friday order.
An application was filed on Saturday morning in the court by a group representing the teachers contending that the directions amount to ordering a restraint on the right to hold a peaceful protest. It was also alleged that the petition related to the protest of teachers on Friday has been filed at the behest of state’s Chief Minister to save him from any embarrassment due to “non-fulfilment of promises” made to the teachers.
The union said that when the farmers can agitate on the streets of Delhi, it is unthinkable as to why a few thousand teachers would be debarred from entering the city by use of force and prohibitory orders. The teachers after 10 years of service on contract are being asked to survive on a monthly salary of Rs 15,300 for three years as against the current monthly salary of Rs 40,000 to 50,000, the plea said.
The division bench of Justices Mahesh Grover and Arun Palli during the hearing observed that it agrees with the argument that a citizen or a group have a right to peaceful protest but asked the applicant counsel Rajvinder Singh Bains if the teachers were ready to undertake that they would agree to pay compensation in case of any damage to life or property during the protest.
However, the applicant counsel did not agree to any such condition suggested by the court.
While ordering the adjournment of the hearing on the application to Monday, the division bench noted that the order passed on Friday is not an “order of restraint as perceived” but “at best it provides a regulatory mechanism”.
“We do not find any extreme urgency to even add or dilute the contents of the order dated 30.11.2018 on a special mention. In any eventuality, in all fairness to the applicant and the nonapplicants there would be a necessity to issue notice of the application to the other side before we even broach the subject of the modification of the order,” the order reads.
Acting on a PIL filed by an advocate on Friday, the division bench headed by Chief Justice Krishna Murari had directed the associations of contractual teachers, who are protesting against the recent regularisation policy of the Punjab government, to obtain prior permission from the district administration in Patiala for their planned demonstration.
The division bench on Friday said the organisers shall carry out peaceful activities only at the place identified to carry out the same by the district administration. Any violation of the directions would make them liable for legal consequences, the order said, while asking the organisation to also give an undertaking that the protest will be peaceful and only at designated places.
The petitions related to the larger question of right to hold protests is pending before the High Court.
Since the August 25 violence in Haryana last year by Dera Sacha Sauda followers, a number of petitions have been filed in the High Court ahead of protests of farmers and now of teachers. All of them were filed in apprehension of law and order situation, seeking public safety.
