HC restrains Haryana govt from withdrawal of criminal cases

2016 JAT STIR At least 30 persons were killed and damage worth thousands of crores was witnessed to public, private properties

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday restrained the Haryana government from pursuing withdrawal of 407 FIRs registered in pro quota violence cases of February 2016.

The high court bench of chief justice Krishna Murari and justice Arun Palli also directed judicial officers in Haryana not to proceed further in the cases where cancellation reports have been filed by the police.

Earlier in May 2018, the advocate general, BR Mahajan, had assured the court to not pursue these cases after objections from amicus curiae, senior advocate Anupam Gupta in a suo motu petition.

The high court was hearing a February 2016 suo motu petition initiated after widespread violence was reported in Haryana during the pro quota protests by Jats.

It was in February 2018 that the government had held meetings with Jat leaders on withdrawal of cases after the latter had threatened to hold a parallel rally in Jind, where national BJP head Amit Shah was to organise a rally on February 15.

After several rounds of parleys, including some sessions with state’s chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and assurance of withdrawal of 70 odd FIRs, Jats withdrew their plan to disrupt Shah’s rally.

In June 2017, government had proposed to withdraw 137 cases and in May 2018, a fresh list of 240 was submitted arguing that representations for the same were received at the local level.

At least 30 persons had died and damage worth thousands of crores was witnessed to public and private properties during more than a week-long violent protests. As many as 2,105 FIRs were registered after February 2016 Jat quota violence.

As per Gupta, of 407 cases proposed to be withdrawn by the state, 129 were such which were termed serious by Prakash Singh committee, a panel formed by the state government to examine role of officials during the violence. 20% of cases are touted to be such where persons have been booked for dacoity.

The matter was taken up by this division bench for the first time since the chief justice took over. After Gupta briefed the division bench about the issues raised in the petition, the matter has now largely been divided in four parts — Munak canal breach issue where court is monitoring investigation by CBI; non-Munak canal issues which include cases of violence reported in other parts of the state; alleged rapes in Murthal, and those FIRs where government is seeking withdrawal of cases.

The petition will now be taken up on October 4.