Two years back when people of Mumbai suffered losses due to bandhs organized by Shiv Sena and BJP, they had a bunch of petitions asking the parties to pay for the losses. Don’t know what happened to that. Now in Kerala, the High Court has asked CPI(M), and DYFI to pay some money to a textile shop owner. His shop suffered damages in a strike called by these parties for miscellaneous reasons such as protesting againt the sun rising in the east.
In view of the High Court’s earlier judgement that political parties and organisations who call for strike (hartal) and bandhs and who enforce such calls are liable to pay compensation for the loss suffered by them, “CPI(M) and DYFI ‘vicariously’ are liable to pay compensation to the petitioners,” the court held.
Though both CPI(M) and DYFI denied having made a call for hartal, the bench, however, said there was no reason to disbelieve newspaper reports in this regard[HC directs CPI(M), DYFI to pay compensation ]
In Kerala where strikes are rampant, this could be a new way of earning a living.
See Also: Pay as you go Bandhs
Interesting! This could well act as a way to counter unwarranted strikes.
“for miscellaneous reasons such as protesting againt the sun rising in the east.” LOL 🙂