Guwahati:
The Guwahati High Court on Wednesday declared as illegal all bandhs in Assam and Meghalaya and said it is violation of the fundamental rights of the citizens.
A division Bench of Chief Justices J Chelameswar and A C Upadhyay passed the judgement on two PILs filed in Assam and in Shillong.
The Bench directed the Assam Government to take steps for preventing infringement of fundamental rights of the citizens on account of bandhs.
While in Assam, the PIL was jointly filed by journalist Mrinal Talukdar, social worker Suchibrata Roychoudhury and former police chief Atuar Rahman, in Meghalaya, it was filed by Hispreachering Son Shylla and others.
Assam has witnesses' successive bandhs for the last two decades and almost every day some or the other part of the State has been under the purview of a bandh.
Earlier in 1997, Kerala Government had banned bandh and the following year Supreme Court upheld it.