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Informist, Tuesday, Jul. 22, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – Noting that Tuesday was the last day of Kanwar Yatra and in any case it was likely to come to an end in some states, the Supreme Court said the respective hotel owners shall comply with the mandate of displaying the food license and registration certificate as required statutorily. The top court said it will not go into other issues such as Uttar Pradesh government's directive to make it mandatory for all food establishments along the Kanwar Yatra route to display a QR code that allows pilgrims to access ownership details.

 

Last month, the Uttarakhand government had made it compulsory for all eateries along the Kanwar Yatra pilgrimage route to display valid food licences or registration certificates at their establishments. Some regions of Uttar Pradesh had also issued orders on the lines of the Uttarakhand government, in addition to the QR code mandate. Thereafter, applications were filed in the top court challenging the orders of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh governments.

 

The top court observed it was concerned about the customers. If a hotel is running as pure vegetarian all through then the question of indicating names will not arise and there will be no problem, said the court. But for the purpose of Yatra if someone only changes from non-vegetarian restaurant to vegetarian then the customers should know, said the court. There should be a way to indicate that these restaurants used to serve non-vegetarian food but have now converted to vegetarian for the Yatra, the court added. "The choice has to be of the consumer...You can be a non-vegetarian or vegetarian hotel, but the display should be there. We will leave the option to the consumer," said the court.

 

The petitioner, Apoorvanand Jha, an academician, and other parties argued that the display of QR codes across all eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route was a breach of privacy rights. Jha further said revealing the names and identities of the eatery owners through QR codes had the effect of "discriminatory profiling" and was stigmatising.

 

Kanwar Yatra is an annual pilgrimage undertaken by devotees of Lord Shiva who travel to key Hindu pilgrimage sites to fetch holy water from the Ganga.

 

Last year, the top court had stayed the orders of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and other states asking eateries and stalls on the route of Kanwar Yatra to display the names of their owners. The court was hearing petitions by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights, a non-government organisation, political commentator Apoorvanand, journalist Aakar Patel, and Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra. Petitioners Apoorvanand and Aakar Patel had sought the top court's intervention to ask the states to withdraw the orders.

 

The Uttar Pradesh government, in an affidavit, had backed the directives issued by the state police against eateries. The state said the idea behind the move was to enhance transparency and ensure Kanwariyas make informed choices regarding the food they eat during the Yatra. This was done keeping in mind their religious sentiments so that they don't, even accidentally, fall foul of their beliefs as such situations would obviously lead to flare-ups, it added.

 

The Uttar Pradesh government said that the Food and Safety Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Regulations state that it requires registration of all petty food businesses and mandatory disclosure of the photo ID of the owner and registration certificate, which sadly is lacking in most dhabas, with some even being unregistered. It added that Kanwariyas follow a strict vegetarian, Satvik diet, eschewing onion, garlic and all other Tamasic foods. Satvik food does not just mean the preparation of food without onion and garlic, but is also about the manner of preparation of the food, similar to "falhar" during other festivals when fasting is undertaken, it added.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Ashish Shirke

 

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