The Uttar Pradesh government withdrew 77 cases related to the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots without providing reasons, senior advocate Vijay Hansaria, an amicus curiae in the matter, informed the Supreme Court on Tuesday, according to Live Law.
The submission was made in connection with a plea seeking the quick disposal of the cases against MP and MLAs.
Sixty people had died in communal riots in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts in Uttar Pradesh in 2013. Thousands of Muslim families were displaced.
Hansaria said in a report after the riots, 510 cases had been filed against 6,869 accused persons in Uttar Pradesh.
“Out of these 510 cases, in 175 cases the charge sheet was filed, in 165 cases final reports were submitted, 170 cases were expunged,” Hansaria told a bench comprising Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and DY Chandrachud, according to PTI.
He added: “Thereafter 77 cases were withdrawn by the state government under section 321 of CrPC [Code of Criminal Procedure].”
The section allows a public prosecutor in charge of a case to move a request before the trial judge for permission to withdraw further prosecution. If the trial judge accepts the request, the accused is acquitted or discharged if charges are not framed.
The lawyer said that in many of these cases, the punishment would have been life imprisonment. “The government orders do not give any reasons for withdrawal of the case,” he added. “It merely states that the administration after full consideration has taken a decision to withdraw the particular case.”
Hansaria said that the cases withdrawn by the Uttar Pradesh government should be examined by the High Court.
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The lawyer mentioned that on August 10, the Supreme Court had ordered that criminal cases against MPs and MLAs cannot be withdrawn without the permission of the High Courts of the states concerned.
The court’s order had been based the amicus curiae’s suggestions. He had also submitted a report highlighting instances in which state governments had issued orders to withdraw cases against elected representatives under section 321 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
His report had said that Uttar Pradesh was also seeking to withdraw 76 prosecutions against the accused in the Muzaffarnagar riots cases, including MLAs Sangeet Som, Suresh Rana, Kapil Dev and Vishva Hindu Parishad leader Prachi.
Hansaria’s report had added that the Karnataka government had also withdrawn 61 cases of which many were against MPs and MLAs.
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