Rajasthan High Court asks authorities to take action against magistrate for disrespecting high court’s order

New Delhi (ILNS): The Rajasthan High Court has directed the Registrar of Vigilance to initiate action against a magistrate who had summoned the petitioners accused in a case, through arrest warrants, despite the fact that they had already been granted anticipatory by the high court.

A bench of Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma observed that the magistrate in the case should have taken care of the high court order. Also, he should have knowledge about the criminal law. The court order said: “There was no occasion for the learned magistrate to have issued the arrest warrants and such course or power was not available with it in spite of having been given to it… The action of the learned magistrate is clearly wanting and shows scant respect to the High Court’s order as well as having little knowledge relating to criminal law.”

As per the case, FIRs were registered against Nanuram Saini and Vinod Kumar under various sections including cheating. In this case, the accused had taken anticipatory bail from the high court in the year 2003. The magistrate, taking cognizance of the related case this year, issued an arrest warrant against the two in September.

After the information regarding the arrest warrant was filed, the petitioner’s counsel in the case filed a petition before the magistrate. It said that anticipatory bail has been granted to the accused by the high court. The petition requested the magistrate to convert this arrest warrant into a bailable warrant under Section 70 (2) of the CrPC.

In view of the law laid down by the Supreme Court, the court quashed the order dated September 3, 2020 and said that “the petitioners shall be treated as entitled to all the benefits as granted by this court under the anticipatory bail and shall submit before the court without submitting any final bail bonds.”

Read the order here;