HC stays warrant against Kejriwal for 4 weeks
LUCKNOW: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has stayed for four weeks a bailable warrant issued against Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal by the court of a judicial magistrate in Amethi district in connection with his alleged inflammatory speech in Amethi during the Lok Sabha election last year.
The court permitted Kejriwal’s counsel to move a fresh application for exemption of his appearance before the magistrate’s court and directed the lower court concerned to dispose it of expeditiously.
Justice Mahendra Dayal passed this order on Monday on a petition moved by Kejriwal under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Kejriwal had sought direc- tions for quashing the proceedings of the case, including the charge sheet and bailable warrant issued against him.
“It is further observed that if the applicant (Kejriwal) applies for personal exemption from personal appearance, the same shall also be considered by the court below in accordance with law. The bailable warrant issued against the applicant shall remain in abeyance for a period of four weeks from today. The petition stands finally disposed of,” the court said.
Mahmood Alam, the counsel for the petitioner, submitted that the alleged speech came under the purview of the ‘right to expression’. Hence, no offence was made out. State government counsel Rishad Murtaza opposed this argument, saying that there were certain limits to the ‘right to expression’ and hence a case was made out.
According to the state government advocate, a case was lodged against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader at the Musafirkhana police station of Amethi in May 2014 during the parliamentary election under Section 125 of Representation of People’s Act in connection with his speech at Aurangabad village.
The section deals with the offence of promoting enmity between classes in connection with election on grounds of religion, race, caste, community or language and entails imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or fine, or both.
A bailable warrant was issued against Kejriwal on July 20 this year, directing him to be present before the judicial magistrate.