The Uttar Pradesh Additional Advocate General, senior advocate Garima Prashad, told a Supreme Court bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud that all subsequent proceedings against them had also been withdrawn.
The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday informed the Supreme Court that it has withdrawn the 274 notices issued to anti- Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protesters for recovery of damages on account of alleged damage caused to public property.
The Uttar Pradesh Additional Advocate General, senior advocate Garima Prashad, told a Supreme Court bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud that all subsequent proceedings against them had also been withdrawn.
The state government also informed that all subsequent proceedings in this connection will be in view of the enactment of a new law that will lay down the procedure for recovery of such damages and that Tribunals constituted under the new Act will deal with such matters.
The SC Bench also directed that recoveries made in consequence of the proceedings that had been withdrawn, be refunded. Though the state urged the court to direct status quo on recoveries already made till the Tribunals decide the matter, the Bench said that when a proceeding itself is withdrawn, all consequent actions, too, will have to go.
The top court, however, gave liberty to the Uttar Pradesh government to issue fresh notices under a new law on the issue enacted by the state Assembly in 2020.
The SC also clarified that the Model Code of Conduct does not stop from the state following laws.
The Supreme Court had earlier asked the Uttar Pradesh government to withdraw the recovery notices issued to the alleged anti-CAA protestors in December 2019 while observing that the proceedings were contrary to the law laid down by it.
A panel of Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant ruled that the state government must repay the total sum seized from the accused demonstrators as a result of the 2019 proceedings.
