The Allahabad
High Court on Wednesday imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on a man for filing
repeated petitions against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath regarding
the 2007 Gorakhpur riot case in spite of the issue being settled by the Supreme
Court.
On January 27, 2007, a Hindu man was killed in a clash
between two groups during a Muharram procession in Gorakhpur.
The petitioner Parvez Parwaz, a journalist, filed a
complaint on September 26, 2008, alleging that Adityanath, the then local MP of
the BJP, had delivered speeches seeking revenge for the death of the youth and
that he had videos of the same.
Subsequently, the state government declined to grant
sanction for prosecution.
The applicant challenged the government decision
before the high court which dismissed his petition. Later, he challenged the
decision of the high court before the Supreme Court, which too dismissed it.
The applicant had challenged the decision of the trial
court dated October 11, 2022, wherein the court had rejected the protest
petition against the final report of police in the riot case.
Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh dismissed the petition of
Parwaz and another under section 482 (inherent powers of high court) of the
Criminal Procedure Code, and imposed the cost of Rs 1 lakh which has to be
deposited in the Army Welfare Fund Battle Casualties within four weeks, failing
which the same shall be recovered as arrears of land revenue from
estates/assets of the petitioner.
The court observed, The petitioner appears to be a
busy body who himself is facing several criminal cases, and he has been
fighting this case since 2007. The petitioner must have been incurring huge
expenses in engaging counsels to contest this case before the trial court, this
court and the Supreme Court.
Appearing for the applicant, senior advocate S F A
Naqvi argued that the "question of legality of the order, refusing
sanction for prosecution, was left open by the Supreme Court and,
therefore, it cannot be said that the issue had attained finality.
Appearing for the state government, Additional
Advocate General Manish Goyal argued that the "issues raised in the
protest petition and in this petition had attained finality up to the Supreme
Court".
"The petitioner cannot be permitted to raise the
same issues time and again," he said.
The high court, after hearing the parties concerned,
observed, I find that the trial court has rightly refused to go into the said
question once it has been decided by the Supreme Court.