In a decision dated December 1, the Gujarat High Court dismissed and set aside a FIR filed at the Bopal police station in December 2017 against Congress leader Hardik Patel for holding a roadshow. The 15-kilometer tour from Bopal to Nikol in Ahmedabad proceeded through numerous Patidar-dominated neighbourhoods and was carried out even after the police rejected permission. The chargesheet that arose from the FIR and the ensuing criminal case before the additional chief judicial magistrate in Ahmedabad was likewise overturned by Justice Gita Gopi’s court.
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In the FIR, Gujarat Congress working president Hardik Patel was named as an accused along with two others, Rajubhai Patel and Sureshbhai Patel. According to the FIR, Rajubhai and Sureshbhai applied for permission to have a rally, which was denied on December 10, 2017. Despite this, the accused people, together with others, held a roadshow the next day, in violation of the extra district magistrate’s decision. During the course of arguments, Hardik’s lawyer, Anand Yagnik, claimed that the “FIR is nothing but an abuse of process of law and is filed with ulterior intent,” and that it was filed “simply on the basis of guesswork and surmises.”
According to Yagnik, the magisterial court’s cognizance to register a criminal case on the basis of a FIR and chargesheet is not maintainable under Section 188 of the IPC without a complaint from the public servant involved. It was further argued that because the magisterial court took cognizance based on the police report rather than any complaint from the public worker involved, the trial was invalid ab initio, without jurisdiction, and deserved to be overturned and set aside.
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While the prosecution challenged the quashing motion, the court found that the requirements of the CrPC “had not been complied with” by the magisterial court, and hence the magistrate cannot take cognizance of the chargesheet. In February 2020, the Ahmedabad rural magistrate court issued a non-bailable warrant against Hardik for missing many hearing dates in connection with the Bopal case of 2017. This was changed to a bailable warrant by the Gujarat High Court in March this year, subject to Hardik’s promise to appear before the trial court on every date of hearing unless the trial court exempts him.
