The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to the Uttar Pradesh government on a petition challenging the state’s move to recover damages, without court orders, from people it accuses of destroying public property during the anti-citizenship-amendment protests.

Filed by advocate Parwaiz Arif Titu, the petition has also sought a judicial inquiry into the large-scale violence in Uttar Pradesh last month during the initial protests against the new citizenship regime.

The bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and K.M. Joseph have posted the next hearing after four weeks.

The petitioner has urged the apex court to stay or quash the notifications, issued in December by the district administrations in Uttar Pradesh, to recover damages from alleged protesters.

According to the petitioner, such steps can be taken only by the high court and are beyond the powers of the state administration.

In defence of its stand, the petition has cited two Supreme Court orders, one issued in 2009 in connection to the Jat quota agitation that witnessed arson and violence in parts of north India, and the other in 2018 in the Kodungalu Film Society case.

In these two judgments, the apex court had held that when protesters destroy public property, the high courts concerned must initiate proceedings under the Prevention of Destruction of Public Property Act, 1984, and recover the compensation to be paid to those affected by the violence.

It had added that a high court can do so only after hearing the accused protesters.

However, the Yogi Adityanath government has started the process of recovering damages on its own, thus violating the Supreme Court’s orders, the petition has contended.

It has underlined that in Karnataka, the high court recently initiated steps, on the basis of the Supreme Court judgments, to recover damages in connection with the ongoing anti-citizenship-act protests there.

The petition has sought a judicial inquiry into the various aspects of the violence relating to the citizenship protests in Uttar Pradesh, “as has been done by Karnataka High Court in view of (the) recent protests” in the southern state.