The Bombay High Court has ruled that public holidays are not a fundamental right and observed that there are too many public holidays and the time has come to reduce them. The High Court held that there is no legally enforceable fundamental right to a public holiday and whether or not to declare a particular day as a public holiday or optional holiday is a matter of government policy.
The court made the remarks while rejecting a plea that sought a direction to the Administrator of Dadra and Nagar Haveli to declare August 2 as a public holiday to celebrate the Liberation Day of the Union territory. The plea was filed by Kishnabhai Nathubhai Ghutia.
Appearing for the petitioner, advocates Bhavesh Parmar, Devmani Shukla, Rajesh Sahani and Reshma Nair submitted before the court that the Union territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli gained independence from Portuguese rule on August 2, 1954 to become a part of India. They claimed that August 2 was a public holiday between 1954 to 2020 but the practice was discontinued on July 29, 2021. Saying that if August 15 can be declared as a public holiday to mark the nation’s Independence Day, they argued that there is no reason why August 2 should not be declared a public holiday for the union territory.
They also drew the court’s attention towards an April 15, 2019 judgment where the High Court had directed the UT administration to declare Good Friday as a public holiday.
However, the bench did not agree with that. “That order stands on a different footing from the present case. That PIL was about the failure to gazette i.e. make compulsory, a public holiday rather than keep it optional. Whether or not to declare a particular day as a public holiday or an optional holiday or no holiday at all is a matter of government policy. There is no legally enforceable right that can be said to have been infringed. Nobody has a fundamental right to a public holiday,” said the bench.
The bench further said that as India has too many public holidays, perhaps it’s time to reduce, not increase, their number.
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