Former Chief Minister of Uttarakhand and BJP leader Vijay Bahuguna has expressed reservations about some of the recent orders passed by the Nainital High Court and stated that it appears that the Court is crossing a certain ‘Laxman Rekha’.
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We have reported on some of the contentious orders passed by the Nainital High Court recently. It had directed the government to enforce a strict ban on websites offering pornographic content after taking suo moto cognizance of the gang rape of a student in Dehradun. This goes against the ruling of Supreme Court which had said in 2015 that adults can’t be prevented from watching porn within four walls of their room. More controversially, the Court had asked the government to provide quotas to transgenders in government jobs and educational institutions in addition to building separate toilets for them in public.
In another order issued in August, the Court said people should not be permitted to hold processions and dharnas against their judgment and directed the district magistrates to not allow any demonstrations. “We have also come across a number of news items whereby the persons were permitted to organise processions, dharnas against the judgments/orders passed by the courts with impunity. This is a dangerous trend. This should not be permitted at all,” the court had said.
The Court had also cracked down on tourism in the state. While banning night-stays at high altitudes altogether, the Court had restricted the number of tourists to 200. Tourists and others associated with the tourism were heavily disappointed with the decision and the decision was expected to cause a loss of hundreds of crores to the state.
The High Court had also banned white water rafting, paragliding and all kinds of water sports in the hill state, inflicting major damage on the tourism industry in the hill state. This ban was lifted in September after state government had filed an affidavit.