The Allahabad High Court has recently imposed a cost of rupees one lakh on a man who was repeatedly filing petitions against the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath with regard to the Gorakhpur Riot case which was already settled by the Apex Court.

The Court said that the petitioner seems to be a busy body who himself is facing several criminal cases and has been fighting the case since the year 2007.

A Single Bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh held, “The petitioner appears to be a busy body who himself is facing several criminal cases, and he has been fighting this case since 2007. The petitioner must have been incurring huge expenses in engaging counsels to contest this case before the trial Court, this Court and the Supreme Court. … this petition stands dismissed with an exemplary cost of Rs. 1,00,000/- (Rupees (One Lakh) …”

The Bench said that the resources of the petitioner to fight or contest the litigation should be a matter of investigation.

“I find that the trial Court has rightly refused to go into the said question once it got decided by the Supreme Court. Once the question of sanction got finally settled, the trial Court could not have taken cognizance on the police report or on the protest petition as the accused, being a public servant, no cognizance could be taken without there being sanction by the competent authority for prosecution”, observed the Court.

Senior Advocate S.F.A. Naqvi, Advocates Fatma Anjum, and Manauvar Husain represented the petitioner while AAG Manish Goyal and Additional Government Advocate A.K. Sand represented the State.

Brief Facts –

In the year 2007, a Hindu man was killed in a clash between two groups during a Muharram procession in Gorakhpur. The petitioner was a journalist who filed a complaint stating that Yogi Adityanath had then delivered speeches seeking revenge for the death of the said man. However, the State Government refused to grant a sanction for prosecution. The Trial Court rejected the protest petition filed by the petitioner.

The petitioner thereafter approached the High Court but his plea got rejected and hence, he moved to the Supreme Court. An FIR was also registered against five accused persons, including Yogi Adityanath, the then Member of Parliament from Gorakhpur Parliamentary Constituency. The Apex Court however dismissed the appeal preferred by the petitioner. He alleged that the investigation was not being properly conducted by the investigating agency in the FIR and therefore filed a writ petition before the High Court.

The issue before the High Court was whether it could have been opened to the Trial Court to decide the issue of the validity of the order, refusing prosecution sanction when the Supreme Court had dismissed the criminal appeal and left the question of sanction to be answered in an appropriate case.

The High Court in the above regard asserted, “Once the sanction for prosecution was refused, the investigation, even otherwise could not have been carried out by an order under Section 156(3) CrPC as in the present case. … There may be some force in the submission raised by Mr. Manish Goyal, learned Additional Advocate General that the petitioner is an impostor who has been set up by the forces, which are opposing Sri Yogi Adityanath, the present Chief Minister of the State of Uttar Pradesh, and the forces, which do not want progress of the State of Uttar Pradesh and India.”

The Court further noted that it is for the State to investigate the above aspect and refused to say anything further or give any direction in that regard.

The Court, therefore, imposed a cost of Rs. 1 lakh on the petitioner to be deposited by him in the “Army Welfare Fund Battle Casualties” within four weeks failing which the same be recovered as arrears of land revenue from his estates or assets.

Accordingly, the High Court dismissed the petition.

Cause Title- Parvez Parwaz and Another v. State of U.P. and Another

Click here to read/download the Judgment

Allahabad High CourtJustice Dinesh Kumar SinghYogi Adityanath

Swasti Chaturvedi