MUMBAI: Seeking dismissal of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by former Mumbai police chief Julio Ribeiro and other prominent senior city citizens seeking Rs 3,000 crore compensation from the MVA partners for a state sponsored bandh last year, Maharashtra government said it was not a cabinet decision and that Cabinet only expressed grief for farmers who lost their lives in Lakhimpur Kheri.
The state home department filed an affidavit on Monday before a bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice M S Karnik submitting that statewide bandh on October 11, 2021, was in solidarity with the farmers’ protests and condemning the Lakhimpur Kheri incident.
The PIL said the bandh was called by Nationalist Congress Party, Congress and Shiv Sena and should be declared ‘illegal and unconstitutional”. The Mumbai police also filed an affidavit saying that the state government cannot be held liable for the losses contended in the PIL and sought its dismissal.
The HC adjourned the matter for final hearing to June 21.
