High Court declines to stay police ban on kite thread

The Madras High Court has declined kite producers’ plea to direct the city police not to restrict the use of ‘maanja’ (coated) thread for flying kites.

The petition had been filed by the Chennai Katradi Urpathiyalargal Virpanayalargal Sangam (association of kite producers and sellers) seeking to restrain the police from interfering with the production and sale of kites and threads in the city by the association members.

The association, represented by its treasurer, S. Kumar, said its members had been carrying on the business of producing and selling various types of kites and threads for the past several decades. Many people flew kites every year through the season which begins in August and ends in January. Recently, the police had begun preventing the association members from carrying out thei trade.

In the counter affidavit, the Chennai Police said two people – Gopalakrishnan and Rajkumar – had died due to the use of coated thread in kites this year.

In some cases, crushed glass powder was also being used to strengthen threads. If such threads were used, the lives of people would be endangered.

There was no bar on sale or manufacture of kites and threads. The only prohibition was on sales of `Maanja’ threads. That was reasonable.

Justice N. Paul Vasanthakumar ruled that considering the deaths due to use of such threads, the police authorities here had decided to regulate the sale and flying of kites. The regulation could not be treated as illegal.