New Delhi: The Supreme Court has extended its in- terim stay on the directive to eateries and shops along the kanwar route to prominently display names of owners and employees, even as Uttar Pradesh said its order was to ensure peaceful conduct of the yatra.
A bench comprising justices Hrishikesh Roy and SVN Bhatti, however, made it clear that there is no restriction on shops and eateries from voluntarily displaying the na-
Any kanwariya mistakenly consuming food outside of their prescribed diet could result in a law-and-order situation, it said. “Such situations would obviously le- ad to flare-ups where lakhs and crores of people are wal- king barefoot, carrying holy water. A mishap in the form of taking a meal unwittingly of a place that would have otherwise not been of their choice, could, for the kanwariya, vitiate the entire yatra, peace and tranqui- lity in the area, the maintenance of which is the boun- den duty of the state,” the UP government said. The government also pointed out that similar arran- gements are made for other religions as well, including special arrangements for Haj yatras and traffic restric- tions in the entire
