The Uttar Pradesh government has said it has dropped proceedings against 162 farmers from Sitapur who were issued notices of personal bonds and sureties of ‘exorbitant’ sums up to ₹10 lakh each to prevent them from allegedly participating in the ongoing farm protests.
The government on Tuesday informed the Allahabad High Court that it had dropped the action against the farmers as “there is no further apprehension to breach of peace or disturbance of public tranquillity”.
Unable to justify
The government counsel, however, could not justify to the court the reason for issuing notice to the farmers owning tractors for filing the personal bonds.
A Division Bench of Justices Ramesh Sinha and Rajeev Singh, while hearing a petition filed against the notices, hoped the District Magistrate of Sitapur and sub-ordinate SDMs would be “cautious” in passing orders of such nature. “Their orders, act and conduct should not be such which reflects arbitrariness and against the principles of natural justice,” the court said.
U.P. Additional Advocate General V.K. Shahi informed the court that notices were issued to 162 persons for executing the bond of ₹10 lakh and two sureties of the like amount. Out of these, 43 had appeared in the matter. On the basis of fresh challan report, the proceedings against all the persons had been dropped, he told the court.
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