Kochi: The High Court of Kerala passed an order banning ‘flash’ hartals, on Tuesday, January 8.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice A K Jayasankaran Nambiar ordered that hartals can be declared only after giving prior notice of seven days. The Court’s order said, “Hartal without 7 days’ notice is unconstitutional and within those 7 days any citizen can challenge Hartal.”
Kerala Chamber of Commerce and Industry, had filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against hartals, stating that 97 hartals were staged in Kerala last year leading to loss of crores of rupees. All the prominent political parties of the state CPI(M), Congress, CPI, BJP, IUML and Kerala Congress (M) were made respondents in the petition.
The petition also sought for police protection for shops and commercial establishments during hartals. The court expressed strong disapproval at the practice of calling for hartals at the drop of a hat.
Hearing the arguments of Dr. K P Satheeshan, senior advocate representing the petitioner, the court has ordered the government to take adequate steps to ensure that the workers’ strike scheduled to be held tomorrow will not affect the public. The court also held that the damage to public and private properties caused during hartals will be compensated from the party or association which called for it.
The High Court of Kerala had earlier declared “bandh” unconsitutional in 1997 in Bharat Kumar v State of Kerala. The Supreme Court also affirmed this judgment. However, the practice of hartals continued on the understanding that the shops and establishments are voluntarily shut down in the process. But in reality, hartals operate with an element of coercion, as people are forced to refrain from work due to fear of attack from protesters. So, despite the ban on ‘bandhs’, public shutdowns continued to be forced by political parties and associations under the euphemism of ‘hartal’. Of late, merchants and tourism operators have been airing their objections against this practice.
The merchants’ association of Kerala had declared that they will not co-operate with hartals from 2019.
