The Madhya Pradesh government will bring in a law to recover damages to public and private properties from protestors, the state’s Home Minister Narottam Mishra said on Wednesday, according to PTI.
Madhya Pradesh will become the third state after Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to introduce such a law.
Uttar Pradesh had approved an ordinance in March 2020 to recover damages from Citizenship Amendment Act protestors. Haryana had passed a Bill for the recovery of damages in March this year amid the farmers’ protest against the three agricultural laws.
The Madhya Pradesh home minister said: “The government is going to bring the Prevention of Private and Public Properties Damage and Recovery Act to ensure realisation of damages from those who damage public and individual persons’ properties during incidents of stone-pelting and riots.”
The Bill is likely to be discussed during the winter session of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly at the end of November, according to The Indian Express.
Under the proposed law, claims tribunals, having powers of the civil court, will be set up across the state. District collectors will have to provide information to the tribunals about damages to properties, PTI reported.
Depending on the seriousness of the case, the tribunals can order the recovery of double the amount of damages, the Madhya Pradesh home minister said, according to the Hindustan Times.
The tribunals will settle cases within three months, Mishra added. “Their [tribunals’] order can only be challenged in the High Court,” Mishra said, according to The Indian Express. “Those indulging in riots and stone-pelting, causing damage to public and private property, will not be spared.”
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