Plea in Supreme Court seeks withdrawal of QR code mandate for eatery owners on Kanwar Yatra route

New Delhi: A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court against a fresh directive issued by the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments to shopkeepers along the Kanwar Yatra route to display QR codes for accessing owner details.

The application filed by Prof Apoorvanand Jha contended that the direction was contrary to the Supreme Court's order of 2024 which held that the sellers on the Kanwar Yatra route can’t be forced to disclose their identities.

It stated that the direction to display names of owners as well as of employees, at a prominent place outside the shop, dhaba or restaurant, as being violative of Articles 14, 15, 17, 19 and 21 of the Constitution.

Citing certain media reports in his plea, the applicant claimed that all eateries on the Kanwar route are required to display QR codes that allow "customers to access ownership details".

The plea contended that these steps effectively served the same unconstitutional end through digital means, in willful disobedience of the top court's directions.

"State's actions impacting privacy and dignity must satisfy the test of legitimate aim, suitability, necessity, and proportionality. The present conduct of respondents fails all four limbs, being neither authorised by statute nor necessary for the stated purpose, and wholly disproportionate in its discriminatory and stigmatising effect," the plea said.

The applicant sought immediate withdrawal and compliance of the top court's earlier orders, which stated that the directive to reveal religious, caste identities couched under the garb of "lawful license requirements" is a breach of privacy rights.

"There is grave and imminent risk of irreparable injury to the fundamental rights of affected vendors, particularly from minority communities, unless this court issues immediate directions to restrain respondents from continuing this indirect implementation," the plea said.

He sought a direction to the States of UP, Uttarakhand to immediately withdraw all QR code-based identification mandates or any other mechanisms that result in disclosure of owner identity or religious profiling of vendors.

It sought that further actions taken pursuant to (whether oral, written or digital, including via QR codes) facilitating public disclosure of ownership/employee identity of food vendors along Kanwar Yatra routes in the States of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, pending final adjudication of the present writ petition.

The plea also sought a direction the states to file affidavits explaining how current mandates do not violate this court's earlier stay or constitutional rights.

The top court should direct that calls for compliance of licensing requirements should be restricted and not include broad and vague directives to display name and identity, it said.

Kanwar Yatra 2025 is scheduled between July 11 to August 09, 2025.

It was now apparent that UP and other authorities are circumventing the stay by reintroducing the same directive stating that "as in the previous year, the name of the operator should be clearly displayed at each shop" under the garb of public safety and maintenance of law and order, the plea claimed.