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The practice of hartals has not ceased to continue in spite of the Apex Court of India declaring ‘Bandh’ as unconstitutional in Bharat Kumar Vs. State of Kerala. Recently, the Division Bench of the Kerala High Court comprising Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice A K Jayasankaran Nambiar ordered that no hartals should take place without prior notice of 7 days. A citizen can challenge the proposed hartal before the expiry of said 7 days.
The court also held all the political parties—CPI(M), Congress, BJP, IUML and Kerala Congress(M), who were the respondents in the case which arose out a PIL filed by Kerala Chamber of Commerce and Industry against hartals. According to the petitioners, around 97 hartals were conducted which culminated in the loss of crores of rupees and livelihood of workers, closure of public offices and educational institutions, increase in abnormality.
Therefore, the court proclaimed that the hartals should not be declared instantly in a flash, rather with prior notice of 7 days. Further, the court said the government to take adequate measures for ensuring public order during the period of hartals, and if there is an injury to the public and private properties, the party or association which organised the hartal shall be accountable for compensating the loss.
The court also directed the state government to bring up legislation to deal with hartals. As stated earlier, ‘Bandh” was declared as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. However, the practice of Bandh has not ceased to exist, but they are conducted due to the coercion of political parties and other associations under the nomenclature “Hartal”.
Merchant associations and Tourist operators had earlier stated that they would go against the practice of hartals, and would not be inoperative when there is hartal. Nonetheless, they failed to act as they said in the very first week of 2019 because of the organisation of hartal by Sabarimala Kerala Samithi, which protested the entry of two women in the Sabarimala Temple. Due to the threats and widespread violence, the stakeholders who intended to not co-operate with hartals had to shut down.
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