‘Disturbed Area tag will scare off MNCs’

In its order,the Bench has held,“The multinational companies and the industrialists from other parts of the country may not prefer to visit Chandigarh. Now the situation has improved. Important national personalities including President,Prime Minister,Chief Justice of India (CJI) and others had been and are visiting Chandigarh frequently. All went well at that time.”

Also,the High Court has held that “important sports and cultural events are being organized in Chandigarh without any problem. No reason has been enunciated in the reply filed (by Chandigarh) or otherwise shown to the Court to justify the desirability and necessity to keep enforced the notifications with a tag of disturbed area for Chandigarh”.

Refusing to allow the notifications to continue,the division bench has ruled,“Merely for providing security to some individuals,whose names are not disclosed,who are residing in Chandigarh,powers have been given to the Armed Forces to take away life of anybody simply by forming an opinion that the said person was acting against any law applicable in Chandigarh.”

In its concluding paragraph,the Court has ruled,“In the recent past,even worse conditions prevailed in the various capitals,cities of other States and in other parts of the country,but nothing has been brought to our notice that those areas have been declared as disturbed areas.”

Terming the stand taken by the Chandigarh Administration as “not justified”,the Court has refused to show conviction in the submissions made by the Administration.

“In the reply filed,it is no where stated any of the conditions,which are contemplated as per provisions of the Disturbed Area Act exist in Chandigarh. Rather,when confronted at the time of arguments,it is stated that no such disturbance has taken place in Chandigarh during the last more than one decade,” the Court has held.

The order further reads,“On our specific asking,counsel appearing for Chandigarh,have failed to give reply as to when the powers were invoked under the said Act. It is only stated that even if no disturbance has occurred,the authorities cannot lower the cover of security because of repeated threat perceptions as per the intelligence reports received. However,neither such fact has been placed on record nor any specific instance has been brought to our notice.”

The directions were passed today on a petition filed by Surinder Bhardwaj,president of the Janta Dal (United) in Chandigarh. The petitioner had contended that the Act should be abolished since it is hampering the tourism prospects of the city.