The Allahabad High Court bench here today directed Uttar Pradesh government to respond to a PIL filed against alleged "holiday politics" in the state.
A division bench of Justices Shree Narain Shukla and Ritu Raj Awasthi passed the order on a PIL filed on April 20 by senior IPS officer Amitabh Thakur alleging that "holiday politics" was being played out in UP for the last few years by state governments.
According to the petitioner, such type of declaration of holidays affected governance and hence the need for it to be regulated through a definite policy.
The petitioner also alleged that some holidays were being declared solely on political considerations.
It was submitted on behalf of the petitioner that the power for declaring public holiday was vested in the union government under Negotiable Instrument Act and not in the state government.
Hence, declaring public holiday by state governments was not permissible, he contended.
On behalf of the state government, it was argued that under a circular of 1957, issued by the central government, a state was empowered to declare a public holiday.
The court gave the state government's counsel to seek instructions in this matter for placing its response on April 23.
The Samajwadi Party government had declared a holiday on December 6, the death anniversary of Bhim Rao Ambedkar.
With this, the number of official holidays in Uttar Pradesh has reached 37.
The Akhilesh Yadav government had earlier declared holiday on the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar (April 17), Maharishi Kashyap and Maharshi Nishadraj Jayanti (April 5), and Hazrat Ajmeri Garib Nawaj Urs (April 26) besides others.
The SP government has also declared June 24 as public holiday in UP to mark socialist leader Karpoori Thakur's birth anniversary.
Elections for the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly are due in early 2017.
