Supreme Court Seeks UP Government’s Reply On Plea Challenging QR Code Mandate For Kanwar Yatra Eateries

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (15 July) asked the Uttar Pradesh government to respond to a plea challenging its order requiring all eateries along the 'Kanwar' yatra route to display QR codes revealing owners' names and identities, as per a PTI report.

A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh issued notice to the state and scheduled the hearing for 22 July on the petition filed by academician Apoorvanand Jha and others.

Last year, the Supreme Court had stayed similar orders in BJP-ruled Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh that required eateries along the kanwar routes to display details of their owners and staff.

Jha’s petition cited a press release issued by the Uttar Pradesh administration on 25 June and argued that “The new measures mandate the display of QR codes on all eateries along the Kanwar route, which reveal the names and identities of the owners, thereby achieving the same discriminatory profiling that was previously stayed by this court.”

The plea argued that requiring stall owners to reveal religious and caste identities under the guise of "lawful license requirements" violates their right to privacy.

The Kanwar yatra attracts large numbers of devotees who carry holy Ganga water to perform ‘jalabhishek’ on Shivlings during the Hindu month of Shravan. Many devotees avoid meat, and some even refrain from eating onions and garlic during this time.

The petitioners urged the court to strike down the QR code directive, calling it unconstitutional and discriminatory, and warned it would unfairly target specific communities running eateries along the yatra route.

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