"They Were Raising Reasonable Demands Of Public": Rajasthan HC Grants Leave For Withdrawal Of Prosecution Against LS Speaker Om Birla & Others
The Rajasthan High Court granted leave for withdrawal of prosecution against Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla (Former MLA, Kota) and others.
The Jaipur Bench was dealing with a criminal miscellaneous petition filed by the State against four persons namely Narendra Meghwal, Om Birla, Chandrakanta Meghwal, Bhawani Singh Rajawat, and Anil Jain.
A Single Bench of Justice Anil Kumar Upman ordered, “Considering the entire facts and circumstances and submissions advanced by the counsels for the parties, and the law laid down by the Apex Court, it can be safely inferred that there was no personal interest of the accused respondents and they were simply raising the reasonable demands of the public at large and also considering the nature of the offence and the circumstances wherein the alleged incident took place, this Court deems it just and proper to grant leave for withdrawal of prosecution."
GA-cum-AAG Ghanshyam Singh Rathore appeared on behalf of the petitioner i.e., State while Advocate Naman Yadav appeared on behalf of the respondents i.e., MLAs.
In this case, a criminal miscellaneous petition under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) was filed by the State and it was submitted that public agitation was in the public interest and public at large including the accused persons were agitating for several public issues relating to the condition of roads, electricity, health, etc. It was further submitted that the agitation was for a public cause and in the interest of public at large and that the concerned persons had no personal interest in the same.
As per the FIR, 45 named persons and 100 other unknown persons had gathered around and were agitating for public cause. Only 48 persons were charge-sheeted and cognizance was taken against them for the offences under Sections 143 and 283 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 8(B) of the National Highway Act. It was submitted before the court that it was not clear from the chargesheet that what role was played by the accused persons. It was also contended that the alleged offences were not related to moral turpitude or corruption charges.
The High Court in the above context noted, “I have also gone through the minutes of the meeting dated 21.09.2021 wherein it has been mentioned that the agitation was in the interest of public and the accused persons were raising demands of the public at large relating to the condition of roads, electricity, and health. In such circumstances prosecution may be withdrawn from the trial court.”
Furthermore, the Court observed it is just and proper to grant leave for withdrawal of prosecution. It also considered the fact that there are no specific allegations against the petitioners in the chargesheet and said that the possibility that the accused respondents were trying to control the agitation cannot be ruled out. It also held that all citizens including the respondents are entitled to raise their reasonable demands and for this purpose they can agitate in peaceful manner.
"Accordingly, the petitioner State of Rajasthan is granted leave to file an application for withdrawal of prosecution before the court concerned. In the event of filing such application, the learned court below shall consider and decide the same in accordance with law. Any observation made hereinabove by this Court shall not affect or prejudice the decision on the application preferred by the petitioner State of Rajasthan for withdrawal of prosecution by the trial court.”, it concluded.
Accordingly, the High Court allowed the petition and granted leave to the State to file an application for withdrawal of prosecution before the court concerned.
Cause Title- State of Rajasthan v. Narendra Meghwal, MLA, Kota & Ors. (Neutral Citation: 2023:RJ-JP:41416)
