Supreme Court orders hotels on Kanwar Yatra route to display licenses, registration certificates

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed all hotel and eatery owners operating along the Kanwar Yatra route in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand to prominently display their licenses and registration certificates in accordance with statutory requirements. A bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and N. Kotiswar Singh issued the directive while hearing a plea challenging recent state government mandates, but refrained from ruling on the more contentious issue of displaying owners' names or QR codes, citing that the annual pilgrimage is drawing to a close.

The top court noted that Tuesday marks the likely last day of the Kanwar Yatra, which sees millions of devotees carrying holy water from the Ganga during the Hindu month of Shravan. "At this stage, we would only pass an order that all the respective hotel owners shall comply with the mandate of displaying the licence and the registration certificate as per the statutory requirements," the bench stated, making it clear it was not delving into "other issues argued."

The plea, filed by academician Apoorvanand Jha and others, had challenged a Uttar Pradesh government press release from June 25, 2025, which mandated the display of QR codes on eateries along the Kanwar route. Petitioners argued that these QR codes, by revealing the names and identities of owners, effectively reintroduced "discriminatory profiling" previously stayed by the Supreme Court in 2024. Last year, the apex court had put on hold similar directives from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Madhya Pradesh governments that required eateries to display owners' and staff names, deeming it a breach of privacy rights. While the current order focuses solely on statutory license display, the larger debate on compelled identity disclosure for businesses, particularly during religious events, remains a point of contention.