Plea to recover loss in bandh from Chennithala dismissed

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Monday dismissed a plea seeking to realise from Opposition Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala, the loss sustained due to a state- wide hartal called by the party led UDF in 2017.

Declining the plea to declare the hartal held on October 16 2017 by the Congress-led UDF as illegal,the division bench,  comprising Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly, observed that political parties have right to call for peaceful protests.

The petition was filed by Sojan P, seeking registration of a case against Chennithala, who is the Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly, for calling for the hartal.

The petitioner had alleged that such an exhortation was in violation of section 166 of the Indian Penal Code (public servant disobeying law, with intent to cause injury to any person).