Sunday Sitting | Allahabad High Court Protects Advocate Alleging Retaliatory FIR By Police After HC Summoned SP In Habeas Corpus Case

In an urgent Sunday sitting, the Allahabad High Court granted protection from arrest to an advocate who alleged that a mala fide FIR was lodged against him at the instance of the Superintendent of Police, Fethgarh, Arti Singh, just days after the SP was summoned by the Court in a separate habeas corpus case. The Bench of Justice JJ Munir and Justice Sanjiv Kumar directed that the petitioner (Advocate Awadhesh Mishra) shall not be arrested till October 29, 2025, in connection with an FIR lodged under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for alleged offences of organized crime, criminal conspiracy, extortion and others. The present case traces back to a Habeas Corpus plea filed before the High Court in September by one Preeti Yadav, whose husband was allegedly detained and tortured by the Fatehgarh police. Briefly put, Advocate Awadhesh Mishra (petitioner), a local lawyer of Fatehgarh, had advised Preeti Yadav to approach the High Court and connected her with Advocate Santosh Kumar Pandey, who later filed the habeas corpus petition. During the hearing of that petition, it came to light in the HC that Preeti Yadav had been forced by the police to sign on some papers claiming that no petition was filed by her and that her husband was not in police custody. When the case was taken up, Preeti Yadav and her counsel (Advocate Santosh Kumar Pandey) appeared before the Court and categorically stated that Yadav had been coerced by the police officials to make such a declaration. On October 9, 2025, a Division Bench of the HC (led by Justice Munir) took serious note of this statement and in its order, it recorded that the act of the police appeared to be a "patent act of obstructing justice". The Court then summoned the Superintendent of Police, Fatehgarh, Arti Singh, and other officials to appear personally on October 14, 2025 at 2:00 p.m. Now, allegedly unhappy over the development in the HC and the assistance given by Advocate Mishra (petitioner) to the Habeas Corpus plea petitioner (Preeti Yadav), the petitioner was harassed at the instance of SP Arti Singh. According to Mishra's petition, following the High Court's order, SP Arti Singh launched a retaliatory action and on October 11, an FIR was lodged accusing Mishra of demanding ₹5 lakh from an accused (in a 2020 case) to make the prosecutrix testify in his favour. The plea further alleges that on that very evening, around 8:30 pm, the SP raided Mishra's house with about 100 constables, beat his wife, son and domestic servant and also damaged his household items. Consequently, on October 18, an urgent mention was made before the Chief Justice seeking urgent listing as it was submitted that Mishra was under imminent threat of arrest. Considering the gravity and urgency, the Chief Justice directed constitution of a special bench for Sunday (October 19). During the hearing, Mishra's counsels categorically argued that the harassment and the FIR was 'telltale' of mala fides given the fact that the FIR against Mishra was lodged barely two days after the SP was summoned by the High Court in the habeas corpus matter. Taking into account the matter and the allegations levelled against the SP concerned, the Court directed that no arrest be made till the next date of hearing and issued notices to all respondents, including the SP. It further directed that the matter be listed fresh on October 29, 2025. Senior Advocate Amrendra Nath Singh, assisted by Advocates Prashant Singh and Santosh Kumar Pandey, appeared for petitioner (Mishra).The State was represented by AGA Deepak Mishra, and Advocate Vinod Kumar Srivastava appeared for respondent no. 5.

Sunday Sitting | Allahabad High Court Protects Advocate Alleging Retaliatory FIR By Police After HC Summoned SP In Habeas Corpus Case

Sparsh Upadhyay

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