Gujarat High Court stays externment order passed against citizen after he questioned and criticized MLA

The Gujarat High Court on Monday stayed an order externing a man (petitioner) from seven districts for two years after noting that the externment order was passed in the wake of an FIR registered after he criticised an MLA (Pravinbhai vs. State of Gujarat)..Justice Paresh Upadhyay found that the externment order passed by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Godhra Prant was, on the face of it, beyond the Magistrate's authority. .Given that the externment order was also passed shortly after the petitioner registered protest over the MLA's functioning, the Court added:."If the grievance of the citizen against local MLAs are to be dealt with in this manner, not only the citizen needs to be protected, even the response needs to be asked from the concerned MLA, whether he supports such an order.".The externment order under scrutiny was passed by the Magistrate while exercising his powers under Section 56(b) of the Gujarat Police Act, 1951. By this order, the petitioner was externed from the following districts: Panchmahals, Mahisagar, Dahod, Chhota Udepur, Vadodara (City and Rural), Kheda and Anand..Three FIRs filed over the course of the last four years formed the basis of the order. Two of the FIRs were from the years 2017 and 2019 and, therefore, relatively stale, the Court noted. .The third FIR was preceded by the petitioner complaining of the MLA’s inefficiency in doing the work for the people, due to which heated words were exchanged. .Following this incident, the Court noted that an FIR was registered on the MLA's son's complaint. On such written complaint, the High Court observed that the Deputy Collector had readily obliged to order the externment of the petitioner..The Court, however, found that the order passed by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate was outside the scope of his jurisdiction as the district Anand was not within the officer's juridictional local limits or even contiguous to it. Therefore, it was observed that the order was without the authority of law and needed to be stayed.."Thus on merits, the impugned order is vulnerable and on competence, it is unsustainable because the order of externing the petitioner is passed even from the district which is not contiguous to the district in which the SDM is working", the Court said..The Court also granted leave to add the MLA of the Godhra Constituency, CK Raulji as a party to the matter and issued notice to him, returnable on August 13. .[Read Order]