Produce permission letter for Jawahar Bagh protest: HC to govt

The Allahabad High Court today asked the Uttar Pradesh government to produce within two weeks the letter issued by Mathura district administration in which permission was granted to a religious cult for holding a two-day demonstration at Jawahar Bagh.
A division bench comprising justices Vikran Nath and Ravindra Nath Kakkar passed the order while hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by Ashwini Upadhyay and two others, demanding a CBI inquiry into the violence at the public park and the circumstances that had led to it, and fixed August 16 as the next date of hearing in the matter.
On July 18, the court had asked the state government to explain why Jawahar Bagh was allowed to remain illegally occupied by members of the aforementioned cult for more than two years despite the fact that permission was granted to stage a demonstration for only two days.

Today, when the court demanded a copy of the letter whereby permission for the demonstration was given, Advocate General Vijay Bahadur Singh sought time so that directions could be issued to officials concerned for locating the document.
The court granted two weeks' time for the purpose.
The court also referred the matter to Chief Justice Dilip Babasaheb Bhosale, who was sworn in only two days ago, so that a decision may be taken to place the issue before an appropriate bench.

Two more PILs connected to the matter have been filed in the high court and they are likely to be clubbed with the other petitions.

One of the PILs has been filed by Vijay Pal Tomar, a Mathura-based advocate on whose petition the court had issued orders for getting Jawahar Bagh vacated.
Clashes between squatters and police left 29 people dead, including two police officers, at Jawahar Bagh on June 2 following an eviction drive launched pursuant to a High Court order.
Later, a huge cache of arms, ammunition and explosives was recovered from the shanties erected by the members of the cult.
Meanwhile, Upadhyay, a BJP leader and Supreme Court advocate, today made a prayer for conducting day-to-day hearings in the matter.
He has been alleging that Ram Vriksh Yadav, the deceased leader of the cult, was said to be very close to powerful leaders of the ruling Samajwadi Party in the state.

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Meanwhile, a division bench comprising Chief Justice D B Bhosale and Justice Yashwant Varma has decided to hear the PILs, including the fresh ones, wherein a demand has been made for ordering a CBI inquiry into the Mathura episode.
The decision was taken by the court "with the consent of all the counsel appearing for the various parties in the case".