Former MP HC judge Rohit Arya, who denied bail to comedians Munawar Faruqui & Nalin Yadav, joins BJP

Rohit Arya is also known for giving bail to a man accused of outraging the modesty of a woman on the condition that he tie a rakhi and promise to protect her.

Retired Madhya Pradesh High Court judge Rohit Arya joins the BJP | By Special Arrangement

Bhopal: Former High Court judge Rohit Arya, who retired on 27 April, this year, joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday in the presence of Madhya Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Rajendra Shukla. 

In his ten years of service as a high court judge in Madhya Pradesh, Rohit Arya is most known for denying comedians Munawar Faruqui and Nalin Yadav bail after they were jailed in 2021 on a complaint of outraging religious sentiments at an Indore comedy show.

Arya, who was inducted into the BJP’s fold by Dr Raghvendra Sharma at a party event on the implementation of the Indian Penal Code equivalent, the new Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, said in his address, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has achieved a big task by replacing the IPC with BNS.”

“We extend our gratitude to the central government for doing this. This will certainly improve the quality of life in the times to come because when the IPC was imposed on Indians, it was with the intention of punishing them. Now, with the intention of serving nyay, the Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita has been formed,” he added. 

Arya said that the sentiment of nyay has been a part of India’s fabric from the times of Ram and the Mahabharata. He said that the Britishers were shaken by the culture and spirituality of Indians, which is why they systematically attacked the education system, attempting to end Indian culture and promote English.

Arya’s joining a political party comes months after former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijeet Gangopadhyay resigned on 5 March and joined the BJP two days later. Gangopadhyay was given a ticket by the BJP during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from West Bengal’s Tamluk seat, and he went on to defeat the Trinamool Congress’s Debangshu Bhattacharya.

Criticising the trend of retired judges joining political parties, Amit Pai, an advocate on record at the Supreme Court told The Print, “Such actions by former judges dilute the faith of the people in the judiciary being independent from political parties. Even though their judgments on all the cases they might have presided over might be legally correct, but it certainly raises a doubt.”

Legal career, cases

Rohit Arya was registered as an advocate in August 1984 and became a senior advocate in August 2003.

“Rohit Arya was an exception in Madhya Pradesh as he became a senior advocate at the age of 41 as opposed to the general trend of advocates having to wait until their 50s to get registered as a senior advocate,” a practising advocate in Indore High Court said on the condition of anonymity.

In 2007, Rohit Arya was empanelled as a senior panel counsel representing Madhya Pradesh in the Supreme Court of India.

Between 1999 and 2012, he served as the standing counsel for the Income Tax Department in the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

His practice areas ranged from civil laws, service and labour laws, constitutional, administrative and taxation laws, corporate and commercial laws, and arbitration and appellate civil litigations.  

According to the Indore High Court senior advocate quoted above, in January 2013, Rohit Arya’s father B.N. Arya was shot dead, and his servant, Jitendra Pradhan, was accused of shooting him but was subsequently acquitted for a lack of evidence. Later, on 12 September 2013, Arya was sworn in as high court judge.  

In his most notable case, Arya, in January 2021, denied comedians Faruqui and Yadav bail, saying there was ‘no case made for bail’ and prima facie evidence to suggest that Faruqui had intended to outrage religious sentiments. However, Faruqui was given bail by the Supreme Court in February 2021, following which Yadav also got bail.

In yet another controversial judgement in July 2020, Arya gave bail to Vikram Bagri, accused of outraging the modesty of a woman, on the condition that he visit her house with his wife and a box of sweets and a rakhi and promise to protect her to the best of his ability. In 2021, this judgment was ruled void by the Supreme Court.  

According to lawyers who have presented before Arya as a high court judge in Indore earned a reputation for misbehaving with counsels and others in his court, but his tenure in Gwalior is looked upon more favourably. 

While serving as a High Court judge, Arya had become a social media sensation for pulling up counsels over their court mannerisms. During one such hearing, Arya scolded a woman lawyer for using the word, ‘Ya’, saying “If you use ‘Ya’ one more time, I will close your file and send you back. You are not sitting in Cafe Coffee Day.” 

In another case in January 2024, Arya, while serving as a judge in the Gwalior High Court, scolded a law student sitting in the visitors’ gallery for sipping water from his water bottle while he presided over the court. After asking the whereabouts of law students, Arya said, “This is not a cafeteria. You cannot just open your bottle and start drinking water. Go out if you want to have something. Drinking water, coffee, etc., is not allowed in my courtroom.” The video went viral on social media and sparked reactions. 

(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)