The Samajwadi Party government suffered a setback on Friday as the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court stayed the GO on withdrawal of cases against persons accused of terror activities.
While referring the matter to a larger Bench, the court gave six weeks’ time to the respondents, including the Central and State governments for filing their reply and four weeks for rejoinder thereafter.
The directive was given by a Bench of Justices Rajiv Sharma and Mahendra Dayal on a public interest litigation plea filed by Ranjana Agnihotri and five others. The petitioners had sought directions for quashing the GO.
On June 5, the High Court had directed the State to submit all documents related to the withdrawal of cases and had asked whether the consent of the Central government had been taken.
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav while stating that the directive would be respected said that he would first go through the entire court order. Talking to reporters after inaugurating a regional workshop on the National Health Insurance Scheme at the Indira Gandhi Pratishthan, Mr. Yadav said the government was only trying to fulfil its poll promise.
In its election manifesto, the Samajwadi Party had promised to withdraw cases against innocent persons, Mr. Yadav said
