New Delhi, 16 October (H.S.): A restaurant owner in the national capital has approached the Delhi High Court seeking compensation for losses suffered during protests. On Friday, the petitioner sought a direction to prevent people from gathering for a proposed event organised by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) at Central Park in Connaught Place. A Bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Nitin Vasudev Sambre ordered that the petition be tagged with other similar matters.

The petition was filed by advocates Umang Tyagi, Sanyam Dahiya and Zubair Ali on behalf of the petitioner. It stated that Ayush Chopra’s family has been running the Minar Restaurant in Connaught Place since 2017. The restaurant is located approximately 700 metres from Central Park.

According to the petition, unauthorised protests in the park and gatherings in the Connaught Place market would cause substantial losses to the petitioner and other shopkeepers. It has, therefore, sought directions to the concerned authorities not to grant permission for such gatherings.

The petition also sought compensation for the losses suffered by the petitioner and other affected individuals during the October 10 protest, to be recovered from those responsible. The petitioner stated that the protests had severely affected business during the Navratri festival.

Earlier, a similar petition was filed before the Delhi High Court on October 13. During the hearing, advocate Sanjay Poddar, appearing for traders, submitted that the period from October to February is the most favourable time for business because of the festive season. However, he argued that recent protests had adversely affected commercial activity.

Sachin Puri, counsel for the petitioner, along with advocate Rishabh Saxena, submitted that hundreds of thousands of people had recently participated in protests in central Delhi, bringing normal activity to a standstill.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar