Shiv Sena moves SC against litigation

Shiv Sena, asked to pay a fine of Rs 20 lakh for the Mumbai bandh called by them in 2003 to protest against Ghatkopar bomb blast, has moved the Supreme Court challenging the High Court order asking it to pay for the loss to public during the bandh.

The petition is listed for hearing before the apex court on Friday. The party, headed by Bal Thackeray, was fined Rs 20 lakh by the Bombay High Court on June 22, 2005 on a Public Interest Litigation filed by the Non Government 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.

The Court has also fined the Bharatiya Janata Party Rs 20 lakh for the same. Challenging the High Court order, the opposition party in Maharashtra said that in a writ petition that the High Court, without going into the quantification of the damages, could not have imposed a fine on a political party.

Sena and the BJP had claimed before the High Court that they had not organised the bandh and that it was a spontaneous reaction of the public against the Ghatkopar bomb blasts.

The PIL said that the bandh was forced on the people of Mumbai and that it was violative of the Supreme Court order of 1997 prohibiting political parties from resorting to such methods of agitation.