Overview
- The court directed the Uttar Pradesh government to issue a clear circular within one month to district and police administrations and all educational institutions to enforce the prohibition.
- The Registrar General was instructed to forward the order to the Chief Secretary within a week for compliance.
- Chief Justice Arun Bhansali and Justice Kshitij Shailendra ruled that institutional land, including playgrounds, cannot host exhibitions, trade fairs, melas or sales and must be reserved for educational and associated activities.
- The bench recorded that the SDM, Rath, improperly permitted Sagar Chaurasiya to run a mela on Brahmanand Degree College grounds from January 15 to February 28, 2025, later extending it to March 10, 2025.
- The court found misuse of a 2011 Form-B permission—altered to read “exhibition”—called such reliance a farce, noted photos of commercial stalls and a hoarding concealing the playground’s identity, and observed that no statute allows such commercial use.