The petition filed through advocate Devmani Shukla referred to an order of another Bench of High Court in 2019 also pertaining to the UT in which the issue was raised regarding ‘Good Friday’ being listed as a restricted (optional) holiday but not a gazetted holiday.
Taking into consideration that Christmas and similar holidays are widely celebrated, the Bench in 2019 had disposed of that case by directing the administrator of Dadra and Nagar Haveli to declare Good Friday as a gazetted holiday in the UT.
The Court, however, drew a distinction between the present case and the 2019 case on the ground that the earlier plea pertained to the failure of the gazette to make compulsory a public holiday rather than keeping it optional.
The Bench then summed up their observation by holding that “whether or not to declare a particular day as a public holiday or an optional holiday or no holiday at all is as a matter of government policy” and not a legally enforceable right.
Source: Barandbench
