‘No need to display owners’ names, show menu’: SC

NEW DELHI: In a significant order, the Supreme Court on Monday stayed the Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh government’s directive asking eateries on the Kanwariya Yatra route to put shop owners’ names, addresses as well as mobile numbers of their owners and staff.

The top court’s two-judge bench, headed by Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice S V N Bhatti, passed the interim order on Monday, after hearing the plea filed by an NGO named Association For Protection of Civil Rights (APCR), All India Trinamool Congress leader and Prof Apoorvanand, after moving the Apex court that challenged the state government’s order.

“We deem it appropriate to pass an interim order prohibiting the enforcement of directives. In other words, the food sellers (including dhaba owners, restaurants, foods and vegetable sellers, hawkers, etc.) may be required to display the kind of food that they are serving to the Kanwariyas. But they must not be forced to display the name/identity of the owners as well as the employees deployed in their respective establishments,” the bench said in its order.