New Delhi, Sep 9 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed the Himachal Pradesh government to withdraw prosecution against some sitting or former MLAs in several criminal cases registered during the COVID-19 pandemic period.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana noted that no grave or heinous crimes were alleged in these cases, which included those related to burning of effigies and ‘dharnas’ on highways.
The top court’s order came while hearing a plea filed by the state government challenging a April 2024 order of the Himachal Pradesh High Court.
The high court had passed the order on an application filed by the state in 2023 seeking its permission to withdraw the prosecution in 65 cases against sitting or former MLAs on the basis of instructions issued by the home department in December 2022.
The high court had partly allowed the state’s plea and permitted withdrawal of 15 cases.
The state then moved the apex court challenging the high court order.
On Wednesday, the counsel appearing for the state said they had sought the high court’s permission to withdraw the prosecution in these cases.
“There is nothing serious in these cases. There was no damage to public property and there was no injury caused,” the counsel said.
The top court noted that in the application filed before the high court, 65 cases were mentioned, out of which five were disposed of while the matter was pending there.
It said the high court permitted withdrawal of 15 cases and out of the remaining 45 cases, four cases resulted in acquittal or discharge.
The bench observed that incidents alleged in these cases pertain to the period of the COVID-19 pandemic which was an exceptional situation where people, including public representatives, were in distress in different manners.
It said none of these cases shows any grave or heinous crime.
While allowing the appeal filed by Himachal Pradesh, the bench modified the high court order and allowed the state to withdraw prosecution in these cases.
The high court had refused to allow withdrawal of cases pertaining to alleged offences including under Sections 269 (negligent acts likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life), 353 (assaulting or using criminal force against a public servant to deter them from discharging their duties) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC, and sections of the National Highways Act and Disaster Management Act.
The high court had said though according to Section 321 of the CrPC, there was no requirement of seeking its permission before withdrawing prosecutions, but such permission has become mandatory in view of the apex court’s decision in the Ashwani Kumar Upadhyay vs Union of India (2020) case, where the accused were sitting or former MLAs.
It had noted that the 2020 decision of the apex court said that public prosecutor may withdraw from a prosecution not merely on the ground of paucity of evidence but also to further the broad ends of public justice.
Section 321 of the CrPC deals with withdrawal from prosecution. PTI ABA ADS ABA KSS KSS
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