Quashed: FIR against luxe car owners for Jan 26 BKC rally

The Bombay High Court has quashed the FIR registered by the BKC police on January 26 against owners of 41 high-end and sports cars for violating prohibitory orders that restricted gathering or unlawful assembly of five or more persons. The police had booked 43 persons and seized 41 luxury cars, which were released by a HC order on February 1. The cars included luxury models from Porsche, Mercedes, Ferrari, Audi, Lamborghini, Jaguar and BMW.

The police claimed that an order prohibiting the assembly of five or more persons from Jan 23-24 was issued, ahead of Republic Day. The prohibitory order was till February 2. The cars were to participate in a rally, organised by an event management company to celebrate Republic Day. It was to start from BKC to Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, Atal Setu and back.

The police claimed that the rally breached the prohibitory orders. Hence the police took preemptive action by reaching the mall at BKC before the scheduled start of the rally at 6am. The rally, expected to include at least 100 cars, was halted by the police.

The FIR was filed against the owners and rally organisers under section 188 (deliberate disobedience of an order promulgated by a public servant) and relevant sections of the Maharashtra Police Act 1951. It alleged that there was no permission for such a rally.

However, the car owners alleged that the police acted high-handedly and failed to inform them about the prohibitory orders or the lack of permission.

While quashing the FIR, the court observed that the car-owners did not indulge in an act of obstructing a public official or risking human life and the action against them was “abuse of process of law”. A bench of Justices PD Naik and NR Birkar added that “there was no act causing any sort of obstruction, annoyance, or risk of it to any person lawfully employed; danger to human life, health or safety or a riot or affray”.