P.K. Balasubramanyan, J.

After this Court declared in Bharat Kumar v. State of Kerala (1997 (2) KLT 287 = AIR 1997 Ker. 291) that the calling of a bundh and the enforcement of that call is illegal and unconstitutional and that decision of this Court was confirmed in appeal by the Supreme Court, in Communist Party of India (Marxist) v. Bharat Kumar (1997(2) KLT 1007 = AIR 1998 SC 184), Political Parties including the appellant before the Supreme Court started calling for Hartals. In Bharat Kumar's case this Court had made a distinction between a 'bundh' and a 'hartal' and had pointed out that a 'bundh' involved coercion of others into toeing the line of those who called for the bundh and that act was unconstitutional since it violated the rights of others. This Court proceeded on the basis that a hartal was a peaceful act of non-co-operation or was a passive resistance movement and a call for it did not involve coercion of a person who did not want to join the hartal into compulsorily participating in the hartal. The Supreme Court in Communist Party of India (Marxist) v. Bharat Kumar while affirming the decision of this Court approved the distinction so made by this Court