Gujarat HC asks govt to introduce concrete plan on ‘Chinese manja issue’
Updated: Jan 14th, 2025
During the hearing of a writ petition in Gujarat High Court on Monday, a division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi told the Gujarat government that the issue of banned deadly kite strings or manja is a persistent problem.
The state government was directed to come before the court with a concrete plan for its permanent solution.
Throughout Gujarat, despite legal bans by the National Green Tribunal, Gujarat High Court, and police authorities on Chinese string, glass-coated nylon string, and Chinese tukkals, a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the Gujarat High Court regarding their illegal production, sale, and use.
From the government’s side, Chief Public Prosecutor Gursharan Singh Virk stated that in the last four days, 609 FIRs have been registered across the state and more than 612 people have been arrested.
The advertisements and publicity informing about the ban on the thread (likely referring to Chinese manja or similar dangerous kite strings) were to be improved, and that has been done, according to Virk. People are being informed accordingly.
Advocates Nimish Kapadia and Bhunesh Rupera, representing the petitioners, stated that it appears the government has taken effective action regarding the dangerous thread issue in the last four days, but it is necessary that this strict enforcement continues even during Uttarayan.
The HC also made a remark that it is not appropriate that the hearing of this case takes place every year at the last minute, that is, only a few days before Uttarayan.
Therefore, in order to ensure that the case can be heard systematically and a proper concrete result can be obtained, it would be appropriate to hear this case before the Uttarayan festival. Saying this, the high court scheduled a further hearing of the case in September 2025.
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