Indian court stays police orders for shops to identify owners during Hindu festival

India’s top court has stayed police orders forcing restaurant owners in northern states to display the names of their owners during a Hindu holy month, sparking outrage over discrimination against the Muslim minority.

Hundreds of thousands of Hindus undertake a pilgrimage on foot, known as kanwar yatra, this time of the year to holy places in the northern states of Uttarakhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to collect water from the Ganges river, which is then offered at local temples dedicated to the god Shiva.

Ahead of this year’s pilgrimage, police in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, both ruled by Narendra Modi‘s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, issued oral orders to restaurants, big and small, to display the names of their owners.

Police justified their orders citing dietary restrictions that pilgrims are supposed to observe such as not eating meat.

The orders were severely criticised by opposition parties and civil society groups for furthering discrimination against the country’s embattled minorities.

The orders, they said, were “reminiscent of apartheid in South Africa”.

The supreme court on Monday ruled that while restaurants can be expected to display the type of food they serve, including whether it is vegetarian, they “must not be forced” to display names and identities of owners.

“Compelling all proprietors to display names and addresses, also of their staff, can hardly achieve the intended objective,” justice Hrishikesh Roy observed.

He said “without support of provisions, if the directive is permitted to be enforced it will infringe the secular character of the Republic of India”.

Noting “the threat of police action in the event of non-adherence to the directives”, the court asked police in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand to respond to the petitions challenging their orders.

The police order was initially issued in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar and later imposed across the state by chief minister Adityanath.

Muzaffarnagar was riven by communal violence in 2013 which left at least 65 people dead, mostly Muslims, and thousands displaced.

Mr Adityanath also banned the sale of meat in the open along the routes for the kanwar yatra as a mark of respect for those undertaking the journey.

Mahua Moitra, a lawmaker from the opposition Trinamool Congress party, called the court ruling a “great victory for the constitution of India”.

“BJP’s lies didn’t work. This was not a law and order issue, this was a dirty divisive religious discrimination issue which we caught and foiled,” said Ms Moitra, who filed one of the petitions challenging the police orders.

Mr Modi’s party and federal government have been accused by civil society groups, opposition parties and even foreign governments of making decisions aimed at fanning religious discrimination.

The prime minister has claimed that he does not oppose Islam or Muslims and is “resolved” to not discriminate between Hindus and Muslims.