Kanwar Yatra: SC directs eateries to display only license & registration info; refuses to interfere in QR code row

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed dhaba and restaurant owners along the Kanwar Yatra route to comply with the Uttar Pradesh government’s mandate requiring the display of licence and registration information.

“At this stage, all the respective hotel owners shall comply with the mandate of license and registration certificate as required statutorily. We make it clear that we’re not going into the issues being argued. The application stands closed”, the top court stated in its order, as quoted by ANI.


Earlier this year, the Uttar Pradesh government issued an order requiring eateries to display QR codes containing information about their owners. Shortly afterward, the Uttarakhand government issued a similar directive.

Last week, the apex court had issued notices to the governments of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

The petition, filed by academic Apoorvanand Jha and others, argues that such requirements violate citizens’ fundamental rights and could lead to discriminatory profiling.

“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,” said Jha, citing a June 25 UP government press release.

"Vague and overbroad directives deliberately mix up the licensing requirements with the other unlawful demand to display religious identity, and leave scope for violent enforcement of such a manifestly arbitrary demand both by vigilante groups and by authorities on the ground. There is grave and imminent risk of irreparable injury to the fundamental rights of affected vendors, particularly from minority communities, unless this Court issues immediate directions to restrain Respondents from continuing this indirect implementation," it added.

The plea urged the Court to restrict such mandates to standard licensing norms and eliminate vague directives requiring identity disclosures.

Last year, the top court had restrained the UP and Uttarakhand governments from enforcing directives that required shop owners and hawkers along the Kanwar Yatra routes to display their names and those of their staff at their establishments.

The Court held that food sellers were only obligated to indicate the type of food they were offering. In its 22 July order, the Court said: "We deem it appropriate to pass interim order prohibiting the enforcement of the impugned directives. In other words, the food sellers (including dhaba owners, restaurants, foods and vegetable sellers, hawkers, etc) may be required to display the kind of food that they are serving to the kanwariyas. But they must not be forced to display the name/identity of the owners and the employees deployed in their respective establishments."