The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party to deposit Rs 20 lakhs each within a week as fine for a Mumbai bandh called by them two years ago to protest against the Ghatkopar bomb blast.
The order to this effect was passed by a bench comprising Justice Y K Sabharwal, Justice C K Thakker and Justice R V Ravindran. The amount has to be deposited with the Maharashtra government, the court ruled.
The Shiv Sena had moved the SC two days ago, challenging the Mumbai High Court order asking it to pay for loss to public during the bandh. Both parties were fined Rs 20 lakh by the HC on June 22 on a public interest litigation filed by non-governmental organisation, Agni, theatre personality Alyque Padamsee and former municipal commissioner B G Deshmukh, alleging that the city suffered a loss of Rs 50 lakhs due to the bandh called by them.
Challenging the HC order, the opposition party in Maharashtra said in its writ petition that, the HC, without going into the quantification of the damages, could not have imposed a fine on a political party. The Shiv Sena and the BJP had also claimed in the HC that they had not organised the bandh and that it was a spontaneous reaction of the public against the Ghatkopar bomb blasts.
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