Supreme Court seeks UP's response to pleas against QR code in eateries

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Tuesday sought Uttar Pradesh government 's response to a bunch of petitions challenging the state's directive to all eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route to display QR code, which on scanning would reveal their food licence or registration numbers, owners' names and menu.

A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh needed no persuasion from a team of advocates representing petitioners - Apoorvanand Jha , Aakar Patel, NGO Association for Protection of Civil Liberties , Mahua Moitra and Mohammad Ahamad - to issue notice to the UP government and asked it to file its response by July 22, the next date of hearing.

The UP govt's directive to eateries to paste QR code stickers, linked to Food Safety Connect App, is officially claimed to enable nearly four crore Kanwariyas to make an informed choice about the quality of food and hygiene.

However, it was termed by petitioners as a revised version of the controversial 'nameplate diktat' issued last year by the state during the Kanwar yatra to discriminate against eateries owned by Muslims, which they said is per se unconstitutional.

The petitioner said the SC had stayed the order mandating display of owners' names at eateries last year and pleaded that the apex court should stay this year's QR code directive as such vague orders give a handle to vigilante groups to unleash violence against eateries run by people belonging to the minority community.