Punjab and Haryana High Court quashes rioting case against CM Bhagwant Mann

The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently quashed a case of rioting and unlawful assembly against Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Bhagwant Mann and other leaders of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) [Bhagwant Mann and Another v UT Chandigarh]

The case had been registered by Chandigarh Police in 2020 after Mann and others had taken out a protest march against a hike in electricity tariff.

The AAP leaders and workers had planned to surround the then Punjab CM’s residence but were stopped with a water cannon, which allegedly led to stone pelting on the cops.

On November 29, Justice Tribhuvan Dahiya allowed petitions filed by Mann and other leaders for quashing of the FIR. The Court opined that there was no reason for the police to stop the protestors as no prohibitory order had been issued under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

“Nobody has been named from amongst the persons present who allegedly pelted stones on the police force. Besides, it is not the case that the petitioners asked them to do so. The nature of alleged instigation by the petitioners has also not been mentioned; nor have specific words or gestures of any kind been attributed to them,” the Court added.

Therefore, it said, there was no basis to ascribe the alleged act of throwing stones by the mob to petitioners. The Court also held that the charges of rioting or assaulting police officials were not made out.

“The immediate trigger for the mob turning furious and behaving the way it did, appears to be shooting of water on them as per orders of the District Magistrate. The nature of injuries suffered by the officials are, abrasions, pain and swelling which could be the result of the shoving and jostling by the mob in an effort to push its way ahead. The investigating agency has failed to come up with any material indicating any definite role to the petitioners in this regard as well,” it reasoned.

The Court also said that the offences of violence by unlawful assembly could not have been invoked in this case as no prohibitory orders had been issued.

“Evidently, unlawful assembly is the sine qua non for the offences under Sections 146 and 149 IPC. And in the instant petitions, it is not the respondent’s case that the assembly of protestors which used the force was unlawful, as the prohibitory orders under Section 144 had not been issued. Consequently, ingredients of none of the offences alleged can be said to have been made out against any of the petitioners even prima facie,” it said.

Consequently, the Court quashed the FIR as well as the chargesheet filed against Mann and other AAP leaders. 

Meanwhile, the Court also quashed a similar FIR registered by Chandigarh Police in 2021 against AAP MLA Aman Arora and other party leaders in connection with their protest rally against the Lakhimpur Kheri incident in Uttar Pradesh.

Senior Advocate Anmol Rattan Sidhu with Advocates Pratham Sethi, Sandhya Gaur, Varun Sharma, Kanishkh Swaroop, Kritima Sareen and Raghav Gulati represented Mann and other AAP leaders.

Public Prosecutor Manish Bansal and Additional Public Prosecutors Viren Sibal and Rajiv Vij represented the UT Chandigarh.

[Read Judgment]