HC dismisses plea filed by ex-minister

The Allahabad High Court dismissed a writ petition filed by former Uttar Pradesh minister and meat businessman, Haji Yaqub Qurashi and another, seeking stay of arrest and quashing the FIR lodged against them in Meerut.

It was alleged that a unit owned by them was processing of meat without a valid licence, and also bringing in fresh meat on the premises after the expiry of the licence.

A division bench comprising justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Rajnish Kumar observed, “The allegations prima facie give an indication that the unit was indulging in unlawful act of processing meat etc, without authority of law”.

Holding that “no interference in the FIR is called for”, the court in its decision dated May 4 further said, “Allegations otherwise are that the storage of meat was generating a lot of foul smell and was a safety hazard for the residents. Once that be so, we would not be justified in examining facts so as to determine whether such allegations are correct or not”.

‘Fill vacant posts of HC judges’

Expressing concern over increasing pendency of cases as well as problems relating to listing of cases, the Allahabad High Court Bar Association (HCBA) on Saturday demanded filling of all the vacant posts of judges of the Allahabad high court and its Lucknow bench.

“At present, the sanctioned strength of judges of the Allahabad high court is 160 but only 93 judges are working right now and 67 posts are lying vacant here,” said HCBA president Radha Kant Ojha at a press conference here.

He urged the chief justice of the Allahabad high court to ensure improvement in the entire system of listing of cases, as according to him, at present the fresh cases were being listed before the court after 10 to 60 days after their filing in the registry.

Hence, he demanded the chief justice to ensure that all the fresh cases are listed before the court after 48 hours of their filing and it must also be ensured that information in this regard is conveyed to the lawyers concerned by the registry through text messages (SMSes).

He said many times information is not conveyed through text messages resulting in dismissal of cases by the courts due to non-appearance of counsel.

Secretary, HCBA, SD Singh Jadaun urged the chief justice to set up jurisdiction-wise courts as the same was practised earlier.