Emergency Services Will Be Impacted, Life Of Entire Maharashtra May Come To A Halt: Bombay High Court on MVA's Maharashtra Bandh

The Bombay High Court on Friday (August 23) while restraining the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition from proceeding with its call for a 'Maharashtra Bandh' to protest the sexual assault of two kindergarten girls in Badlapur, said that such a 'Bandh' will halt the 'entire life of Mumbai.'

A division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Amit Borkar had pronounced its order on Friday evening, by which it had restrained all political parties and even individuals from carrying out any 'Bandh' in the State. It had also issued notices to the MVA coalition - the Indian National Congress (INC), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) - Sharad Pawar faction and the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction), and sought their responses on the pleas by October 9.

Within hours of the pronouncement of the order, the parties however, reportedly called off their proposed Bandh.

Copy of the bench's order was made available late Friday night, wherein the judges have taken note of the impact of the proposed Bandh on the normal life of citizens in Mumbai.

"We are, prima facie, convinced that the call given by the political parties is a call to observe Bandh tomorrow (August 24) in the entire State of Maharashtra, which means call for cessation of all kinds of activities which will result in the life of the State coming to halt, that may entail heavy loss to the industrial activities, business activities, economic activities and other such activities," the judges noted in the order.

Such a call, the bench opined, if observed, is likely to affect not only the studies of children and other students but will also impact adversely the emergency services such as health services and other public conveniences like supply of electricity and water and the services of local trains in Mumbai.

"It is needless to say at this juncture that local trains in Mumbai are its lifeline and in case the call of Bandh is permitted to be observed, it is likely that the entire life of Mumbai may come to a halt," the judges underscored.

The bench, added, "We are of the opinion that in case the direction by this Court restraining all concerned from proceeding with the call for Bandh is not given, huge loss, not only in terms of economy and business, but also in terms of providing essential services and basic amenities including health services will occur which needs to be prevented."

The MVA partners had called for the Bandh to protest the tragic incident of the sexual assault of two minors by a school cleaner in Thane's Badlapur area. The accused has been arrested and the Maharashtra Government has also constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under IPS officer Arti Singh to investigate the incident. 

Notably, the Bombay HC bench led by Justice Revati Mohite-Dere has taken suo motu cognisance of the incident and in a hearing held earlier this week, the bench took note of various lapses in the preliminary investigations carried out by the Badlapur Police and the judges opined that the 'police did not play its role the way it ought to had played.' The matter has been kept for hearing on Tuesday.

Appearance:

Advocates Subhash Jha, Harekrishna Mishra, Siddharth Jha, Apeeksha Sharma, Sumit Upadhyay, Neha Balani and Deepesh Shahani instructed by Law Global Advocates appeared in one of the PILs.

Advocate Gunaratan Sadavarte appeared as party-in-person along with Advocate Sandip S Gaikwad in another PIL.

Advocate General Dr Birendra B Saraf along with Chief Government Pleader Priyabhushan Kakade, Additional Government Pleader OA Chandurkar, Assistant Government Pleader GR Raghuwanshi and Special Counsel Chirag Shah represented the State.

Case Title: Nanda Bai Sarjerav Misal versus State of Maharashtra (PIL/108/2024)

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