Anti-CAA protesters in UP celebrate, say ready for long battle

Protestors who were asked to pay up for damages caused to public property during the agitation against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in 2019 as well as rights activists on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court order directing the Uttar Pradesh administration to refund the money.

The BJP-ruled state government told the Court that it had already withdrawn recovery notices issued to the protestors. The state is, however, exploring legal options as the apex court had granted it liberty to proceed in accordance with state legislation.

Parvez Arif Titu, a social worker who was formerly with the Congress party in Amroha, had filed the petition before the top court.

Titu told ET that he was ready for a "long battle."

"I am prepared with legal options to counter what the state government will do now. The court has clearly said that what the government did has no legal validity, but even if they frame charges under the new law, we will fight it tooth and nail," he said.

Titu, who quit the Congress recently over differences with the party leadership, also alleged that there had been a complete lack of political support for his case.

"The way Muslim brothers and sisters have suffered during anti-CAA protests is unthinkable. Even daily wage labourers were served notices, as were old men and women who don't even step out of their houses."

The Association for Protection of Civil Rights, which works closely with the protesters, said in a report that over 500 recovery notices had been issued without due legal process across 20 districts for damages worth ₹3.55 crore.

"Even activists and lawyers who were kept under house arrest by the State police in mid-December were accused of damage to public property," it said. According to the report, most of the recovery notices were sent to protesters in Lucknow, Kanpur, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Bulandshahr and Sambhal. The UP Police, Titu said in his petition, had issued notices even "against a person...who died six years before, at the age of 94, and two elderly persons who are over 90, both of whom were suffering from chronic illnesses."

"...it is clear that the persons to whom the notices have been sent have not been booked under penal provisions and no details of any criminal offence have been made out against them," the petition read.In March 2020, the Lucknow administration issued its first notice of recovery to 16 people, fixing the collective responsibility of damages worth ₹69.48 lakh, and the deadline was 30 days.