An application has been moved before the Supreme Court. It challenges the Uttar Pradesh government’s recent directive mandating QR codes at eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route. The application alleges that the move effectively facilitates discriminatory profiling of shop owners by revealing ownership details.
Delhi University Professor Apoorvanand Jha and human rights activist Aakar Patel have filed the application. They did this through advocate Akriti Chaubey. The matter is related to religious profiling of vendors. The plea asserts that the QR code directive is a cloaked continuation of measures previously stayed by the top court in July 2024. These measures were previously stayed for violating constitutional rights.
According to press reports cited in the petition, shopkeepers are being coerced into compliance. Some are subjected to deeply invasive checks, including Aadhaar verification. In one reported instance, they were asked to remove their pants to verify their religious identity.
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“This is a digital repackaging of communal profiling,” the application contends. It asserts that mandatory QR codes blur the line between standard licensing norms. These codes make unconstitutional demands to reveal religious identity. The petitioners claim this endangers the right to dignity, equality, and privacy—particularly for Muslim vendors—during the 2025 Kanwar Yatra.
The applicants also note that the Supreme Court had explicitly stayed similar directives on July 22, 2024. The stay was later extended. Yet, the Uttar Pradesh authorities are allegedly circumventing the stay via “technological proxies.”
The matter is expected to be heard next week by a Bench comprising Justices MM Sundresh and NK Singh. The plea seeks immediate directions to restrain the implementation of the QR code initiative and uphold the Court’s prior orders.
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