The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Friday (July 26) refused to interfere with the Centre’s decision to commemorate June 25 as 'Samvidhan Hatya Diwas' stating that the court “cannot question the political wisdom of the government” in issuing such a notification. Passing the order, a bench of Justice Sangeeta Chandra and Justice Shree Prakash Singh observed, "It is lookout of the Government for declaration to be made with regard to the excesses caused by the proclamation of Emergency on June 25, 1975. The court cannot enter into the political thicket and cannot question the political wisdom of the government in issuing such a notification to commemorate June 25 as Samvidhan Hatya Diwas."
The bench passed the verdict on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed by former IPS Amitabh Thakur. The petitioner had demanded that the notifications by which the central government declared June 25 as 'Samvidhan Hatya Diwas' should be set aside.
What did the petitioner appeal?
In the PIL, the petitioner pleaded that naming June 25 as 'Samvidhan Hatya Diwas' is hugely improper and tends to give an adverse message to the people at large regarding the Constitution of India, which is 'Bharat Ka Samvidhan'.
"The ordinary people of India are not very literate and they do not understand the import of the notification issued in this regard on July 11, 2024 as modified by the notification on July 13, 2024. Instead of using the words, 'Samvidhan Hatya Diwas', the central government could have used more appropriate language and should have thought of a positive terminology,” Thakur argued.
For example, he said, the government could have used the words "Samvidhan Raksha Diwas" as the intent of the gazette notification challenged in petition is only to remind the people of India the excesses that were committed by the government of the day by proclamation of Emergency on June 25, 1975.
"No doubt, the proclamation of Emergency resulted in misuse of power by the government of the day and the people of India were subjected to excessive atrocities and the guarantees given in the Constitution of India to the people were violated and ignored. The use of the words Samvidhan Hatya Diwas is a reiteration of the violence that was done to the people's rights during the proclamation of Emergency but it could not be said that the Constitution itself was killed and in case, the government feels that the Constitution was 'killed', it would not have been possible for a revival of the democracy when the people of India threw out the government of the day in the general elections held thereafter," the petitioner further pleaded.
Considering the matter at some length, the bench refused to question the wisdom of the government.
(With PTI inputs)
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