Plea for ban on Chinese manjha: HC seeks action taken report from Centre, U.P.

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has sought a response and an action taken report (ATR) from the central and Uttar Pradesh governments on a plea for banning ‘Chinese manjha’ (glass-coated kite string).

A division bench of justice Rajan Roy and Justice Om Prakash Shukla passed the order on September 3 on a public interest litigation filed by a local lawyer ML Yadav. The plea for protection from ‘Chinese manjha’ was filed in view of repeated incidents of severe and fatal injuries to people.

The petitioner sought directions to the central government to completely ban the import of ‘Chinese manjha’. It also urged that the state respondents be asked to completely ban its sale and use in Uttar Pradesh.

The petitioner submitted that repeated incidents are taking place in different parts of the state, where two -wheeler riders, especially, have been receiving severe injuries due to ‘Chinese manjha’. He also produced newspaper reports regarding such incidents.

The state counsel, placing the government order (GO) dated November 16, 2017, said the state had already had imposed a ban on manufacturing, storage, use and sale of ‘Chinese manjha’ in compliance with the court’s orders as that of the National Green Tribunal.

The court directed the state government counsel to file a fresh affidavit for a reply till September 25 to be filed by the home department and the U.P. environment department as to the mechanism in place for implementing the said government order.

Action taken reports, if any received from the districts, should be also summarised and brought on record so as to enable this court to ascertain as to whether the said government orders are being properly implemented or not, the court further ordered.

The petitioner placed a news item published in a Hindi daily newspaper on August 26, 2024, pertaining to a recent incident where the throat of a person got slit due to ‘Chinese manjha’ being used by youngsters.

The petitioner submitted that these incidents happened in Lucknow.

The court took such news report clippings on record and directed to hand over the copies of the same to the counsel for the Centre and the state government.

The court also directed the central government counsel to seek instructions and file an affidavit of reply as to the stand of the Union of India in this regard and whether this issue is pending consideration before the National Green Tribunal or has been decided by it finally.

The high court fixed the next hearing on September 25.

MANOJ KUMAR SINGH