Court had directed state to initiate recovery proceedings from people who damaged public property during the PFI hartal.
PFI members damaged the public transport buses during the protest in the state on 23 September. (Supplied)
The Kerala High Court expressed displeasure over the state government’s delay in completing the recovery proceedings in connection with the damage to public property in the violence during the hartal called for by the now-banned Popular Front of India (PFI).
The High Court on Wednesday, 18 January, directed the state government to complete the recovery and submit a district-wise report by 23 January.
It also said that there was no need to issue notices prior to carrying out the recovery proceedings.
The court expressed displeasure over the delay as the state government last month had assured to complete the recovery by 15 January.
The court had in December last year too expressed displeasure over the delay in recovery proceedings.
The government had on 7 November, 2022 told the court that a loss of ₹86 lakh was incurred due to the damage to the property during the violence in the state-wide hartal in September last year.
The government had also submitted that a loss of ₹16 lakh was suffered by private persons during the violence.
The state police have registered a total of 361 cases and arrested 2,674 people, it had said then.
Earlier, the High Court had asked the banned PFI and its ex-state general secretary Abdul Sathar to deposit ₹5.2 crore with the Home Department towards damages estimated by the KSRTC and the state government in connection with the hartal-related violence saying they must be held accountable for it.
Sathar, when he was the state general secretary of the outfit, had called for the hartal against the nationwide raids on PFI offices and arrests of its leaders, and then allegedly absconded.
Hours after the PFI was banned, he had issued a statement saying the outfit has been disbanded in the wake of the Home Ministry’s decision and subsequently, he was arrested.
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