New Delhi: The Gauhati high court on Monday stayed the observations made by a Barpeta court in its order granting bail to Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani for allegedly assaulting a woman police officer “crossed its limits and demoralised the police force and the government of Assam”.
The high court, however, did not pass any opinion on the grant of bail to Mevani, a Dalit leader and independent legislator supported by the Congress.
The Barpeta court had pulled up the state police for lodging a “false FIR” against Mevani and requested the high court to consider directing the Assam Police to prevent the registration of a false FIR like the present case. “Converting our hard earned democracy into a police state is simply unthinkable, and if the Assam Police is thinking about the same, the same is perverse thinking,” the court had said.
Hearing a petition filed by the Assam government challenging the bail order passed by Barpeta District and Sessions Judge Aparesh Chakraborty, Justice Debashis Barua said that his remarks related to the working of the police and the government were beyond the jurisdiction of the lower court, Justice Barua said.
Regarding the lower court’s observation that the police had registered a false case against Mevani, he said there was no abuse of the process of law or the court.
Justice Barua said that the lower court’s observations were against the jurisprudence and orders laid out by the Supreme Court. Some of the observations, he continued, “had no relevance to the consideration of the bail application”. “These observations were made without there being any materials on record, on the basis of which the learned judge could have made such observations and consequently, this court stays the above quoted observations until further orders,” Justice Barua said in his order, according to the Indian Express.
However, the judge clarified that this order should not be misconstrued as a stay on the bail granted to Mevani.
As the high court was closed on Monday due to a holiday, Advocate General Devajit Saikia took special permission to challenge the order of the district court.
Saikia told reporters that the state government appealed to the high court to set aside the lower court’s order granting bail to Mevani.
The matter will again come up for hearing on May 27.
Mevani was arrested by Assam Police first on April 19 from Palanpur town in Gujarat after an FIR was registered against him in Kokrajhar for his tweet on the prime minister.
After a Kokrajhar court granted him bail in the case on April 25, he was shown as rearrested for allegedly assaulting the woman police officer while he was being brought by a police posse from Guwahati to Kokrajhar four days ago. Mevani and his supporters said at the time that this was nothing but an attempt to keep him in prison under false charges.
The Barpeta court granted bail to Mevani in this case on a Personal Recognisance (PR) bond of Rs 1,000 in the case filed at the Barpeta Road police station.
The MLA returned to Gujarat on April 30 after being released on bail in the two cases and completing the formalities for his release.
(With PTI inputs)