Institute of Legal and Management Studies

In a matter alleging registration of multiple FIRs by State of Uttar Pradesh in order to defeat grant of bail, the Supreme Court recently directed that the accused shall not be arrested in any subsequent FIR without leave of the Court.

"...the petitioners shall not be arrested by the respondents in any of the FIR(s) which will be lodged hereinafter, without the leave of this Court" a bench of Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran ordered, while granting bail to the accused in an FIR already registered by the police under provisions of the SC/ST Act and IPC.

Briefly put, the petitioners approached the Court claiming that in order to ensure that they kept languishing in jail, the UP police was registering fresh FIRs whenever they secured relief of bail. Notice was issued on the petition in November, 2024. On a previous hearing date, the petitioners, represented by Senior Advocate Siddharth Dave, expressed an apprehension that upon their release, fresh FIR may be registered against them and they may be arrested.

Later, they filed an application stating that the apprehension had turned out to be correct, as another FIR was registered by the UP Police on August 13, after the petitioners were granted bail by the High Court on August 12 in a case under Sections 376D/323/506 IPC.

After hearing the contentions, the Supreme Court allowed the petitioners' application and granted them bail in the FIR registered on August 13 under Sections 3(1)(B), 3(1)(D) of SC/ST Act with 2015 amendment and Sections 141/148/149/307/323/395/397/452/504/506/420/467/468/471 IPC.

Notably, the main petition filed by the petitioners seeks an inquiry into UP police's conduct. The petitioners' father was an MLC in Uttar Pradesh from Bahujan Samaj Party. They allege targeting by the police at the behest of the ruling-BJP, with as many as 33 criminal cases having been registered against them since the change in government and land mafias allegedly encroaching upon their properties.

In related news, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta, in May, restrained UP authorities from registering any fresh FIR against a couple from a politically influential family who accused the state of lodging multiple false cases against them with oblique motives. As per claims, the UP authorities were indulging in malicious prosecution by registering fresh FIR whenever the couple obtained bail in some case. It was being done only to frustrate the benefit of bail, they said.

Appearance: Senior Advocate Siddhartha Dave, AoR Mohd. Zahid Hussain, Advocates Pallavi Sharma, Jemtiben Ao, Kazi Najesh Haque, and Tanisha Koshal (for petitioners); ASG KM Nataraj, AoR Vishwa Pal Singh, Advocates Ashish Pandey, Mukesh Kumar, Ashutosh Bhardwaj, Akash, Anurag Pandey and Amit Kumar (for respondents)

Case Title: WAZID & ORS. VERSUS STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH & ORS., WRIT PETITION (CRIMINAL) NO. 450/2024

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