Police Officials Who Side With Ruling Party Later Get Targeted When Opponent Comes In Power; Sad State Of Affairs : CJI Ramana

The Chief Justice of India NV Ramana on Thursday made comments about the trend of police officials siding with the party in power and later getting targeted when the opponent comes to power."State of affairs in the country is sad. When a political party is in power, Police Officials side with a particular party. Then when a new party comes into power, the government initiates action against those officials. This is a new trend, which needs to be stopped", the Chief Justice of India orally remarked.A bench comprising the CJI and Justice Surya Kant was hearing a petition filed by suspended Additional Director General of Police Gurjinder Pal Singh seeking protection in a sedition case filed against him. Singh filed the petition challenging an order of the Chhattisgarh High Court which refused to quash the FIR for sedition registered against him.The Supreme Court issued notice on Singh's petition and granted him interim protection from arrest for four weeks. Senior Advocate Fali S Nariman appeared for Singh and Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi appeared for the State.The state Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and Economic Offences Wing (EOW) had registered an FIR against Singh, under the Prevention of Corruption Act on June 29 after preliminary findings into complaints that he had allegedly amassed disproportionate assets. On July 1, 2021, the residence of the petitioner was raided by the police and they allegedly found some pieces of papers in a drain behind the house of the petitioner which were later on reconstructed by them into some notes, criticize, statistics report against political party and against few representatives of the various wings of the State. The contents of the reconstructed documents have been alleged to be illicit vengeance and hatred against the State Government and as a result of which, an FIR against him was registered against him for committing offence under Sections 124A & 153A of I.P.C.High Court's order At the outset, the Court noted that the petitioner had filed bail application under Section 438 of Cr.P.C. for grant of anticipatory bail before the Sessions Court, which was later on withdrawn on the pretext that on 13th July 2021, he had filed the writ petition before the Court. Therefore, a bench of Justice Narendra Kumar Vyas observed :"Grant of any protection would override the provisions of Section 438 of Cr.P.C. as such, considering the overall material placed before this Court, diary of the case, I am of the considered opinion that the petitioner is not entitled to get any interim relief as prayed for by the petitioner and the interim application is liable to be dismissed. Accordingly, the same is dismissed." The Court also noted that from a bare perusal of the FIR, it was crystal clear that FIR had been registered on July 8, 2021 and the Writ Petition had been filed on July 13, 2021, as such, it was a premature stage of filing of the petition.Case Title: Gurjinder Pal Singh v. State of ChattisgarhClick Here To Read/ Download Order

Police Officials Who Side With Ruling Party Later Get Targeted When Opponent Comes In Power; Sad State Of Affairs : CJI Ramana

Shruti Kakkar

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