Flash Hartal: Kerala High Court asks State to attach properties of PFI office bearers directly; notice unnecessary

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday directed the State government to directly proceed with attaching the properties of the office bearers of the now banned organisation, Popular Front of India (PFI), for recovery of ₹5.20 crores as damages for the flash hartal conducted by them on September 22, 2022 [Kerala Chamber of Commerce and Industry v State of Kerala]..A division bench consisting of Justices AK Jayasankaran Nambiar and Mohammed Nias CP noted that the State had issued notices to the office bearers including PFI Secretary Abdul Sathar asking them to show cause as to why their properties need not be attached.The State justified the same by saying that it was merely complying with the Court's previous order to initiate recovery proceedings as per the Revenue Recovery Act.The bench said that this was the wrong way to proceed and clarified that its directions to the State was to proceed against the properties of the PFI office bearers since they had not complied with the Court's earlier directions to deposit an amount of ₹5.20 crores. In view of the same, issuance of show cause notice was unnecessary, the bench opined. "We are of the view that the Government should have straight away proceeded to attach the properties and bring the same to sale for realisation of the aforesaid amount of Rs.5.20 crores by following the procedure under Section 35 of the Revenue Recovery Act which would squarely apply in the instant case. In other words, the reference to the provisions of the Revenue Recovery Act in our earlier orders has to be taken as a reference to those provisions under that Act as are applicable on the facts in the instant case, and which would enable the State government to promptly effect a sale of the properties belonging to the persons aforementioned for realisation of the amount aforementioned. Accordingly, those procedures under the said Act such as Sections 7 and 34 that are designed to protect the owners of the properties need not be invoked in the case of the additional 12th and 13th respondents as also the office bearers of the organisation concerned since they are admittedly defaulters of the directions issued by us," the bench explained in its order..The bench then directed the State Government to submit a report with district-wise details of the properties attached by January 23..The Kerala High Court had initiated suo motu contempt proceedings on September 23, the day the hartal was called, taking cognizance of the fact that the PFI had called for a hartal without the mandatory 7-day notice.Later on, the KSRTC moved the High Court seeking compensation to the tune of ₹5.06 crores from the PFI for the damages caused to its buses during the hartal as many protestors engaged in stone pelting and other destructive acts..On December 19, the court pulled up the State government for delaying the recovery of damages from PFI.Thereafter on the next hearing, the state government tendered an unconditional apology before the court for its failure to implement the Court's directive to initiate recovery proceedings against PFI..The matter will be taken up next on January 24. .[Read Order]