Supreme Court refuses to stay probe against former Congress minister Pramod Jain Bhaya but orders no coercive action

The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to stay the investigation into multiple criminal cases registered against former Rajasthan Cabinet Minister and Congress leader Pramod Jain Bhaya [Pramod Jain Bhaya & Ors. vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors.]..However, the Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta sought the response of State of Rajasthan to Bhaya’s plea for clubbing multiple FIRs lodged against him across various police stations in Baran district.The Court also ordered that no coercive measures may be taken against Bhaya with regard to various First Information Reports(FIRs) in the meantime."Issue notice, returnable within four weeks. In the meantime, no coercive measures may be taken against the petitioner with regard to the FIRs in question subject to the condition that the petitioner shall continue to cooperate with the investigation as and when required to do so," Court ordered..The Supreme Court was hearing a plea against a May 2025 Rajasthan High Court order refusing to quash 13 FIRs filed against Bhaya, his wife, and others under the IPC, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, and other laws, registered across multiple police stations.These FIRs were lodged shortly after the conclusion of the 2023 Rajasthan Legislative Assembly elections, in which Bhaya had contested but was unsuccessful. It was alleged that these complaints were politically motivated and influenced by the newly elected government.The High Court, however, rejected the plea to quash the FIRs."The prayer for quashing of FIRs is hereby rejected, primarily on the ground of contradictory and mutually exclusive reliefs prayed for by the petitioner—seeking both a unified fair investigation and simultaneous quashing, which are legally irreconcilable," High Court had said in the order.The High Court had also turned down Bhaya’s request for transferring all investigations to a single senior IPS officer, stating that such a privilege could not be granted in the absence of any clear evidence of bad faith on the part of the police.It further noted that the FIRs pertained to separate incidents, were registered at different locations, and involved different investigating agencies.Aggrieved by this order, Bhaya approached the Supreme Court for relief..Appearing for Bhaya, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi submitted that the FIRs were politically motivated and had been registered after the 2023 Rajasthan Assembly elections, following the regime change in the State. Rohatgi argued that the cases were lodged by politically connected complainants with an intent to harass the petitioner after his electoral loss..Bhaya argued that it was implausible for so many genuine criminal complaints to emerge simultaneously against the petitioners right after a change in political power.The FIRs were registered on vague, indefinite, and unsubstantiated allegations, and are founded upon mere conjectures and assumptions, it was submitted.He contended that the High Court erred in treating his alternative prayers—clubbing of FIRs for joint investigation and quashing—as legally incompatible. According to him, the two reliefs were not mutually exclusive but sequential in nature.He submitted that the petitioners were merely seeking constitutional protection—either by preventing multiple prejudicial prosecutions through clubbing or by quashing FIRs that appeared politically motivated. Seeking alternative reliefs, he argued, was both procedurally valid and constitutionally permissible.The Court asked the State to respond to the plea to club the FIRs.The matter will be heard next on August 13..Apart from Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, advocates Nishant Rao, Laxman Meena, Devanshi and Sukriti Bhatnaga appeared for the Bhaya. Additional Advocate General Mangal Sharma along with advocates Shalini Singh and Rustam Chauhan appeared for the State..[Read Order]