This writ petition of Uttarakhand Sangharsh Samiti came to court on 7th October, 1994 within five days of the incidents to which the courts attention was drawn, which occurred in the areas of the hills of Uttar Pradesh and concerned the peoples of Kumaon and Garhwal.

2. On the first three days of October, 1994, while a representative section of the peoples of the hills of Kumaon and Garhwal were as activists exerting their civil rights they were met with State resistance. The resistence came from the ad ministration and was executed through the police and para- military forces. There was firing on the crowds and at Mussoorie in Garhwal and Khatima in Kumaon and a little beyond the foot hills of these regions at Muzaffarnagar, there were deaths by firing. From Muzaffarnagar came reports of sexual assaults by police and the Provincial Armed Constabulary. The reports from the media carried new nation wide, of those killed in firing and of women being raped and molested and yet others were shorn of their jewellery and personal effects. Why did all this happen?

3. Why should a civil rights movement to agitate in support of a demand that has been formally agreed to lead