The Supreme Court on Thursday said it was not inclined to interfere with the Punjab and Haryana High Court's decision to quash an FIR against Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and other AAP leaders in connection with a 2020 protest against the hike in electricity tariffs.
A Bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohan heard the Chandigarh Administration's plea challenging the High Court's order, which had quashed the FIR and the chargesheet filed over the protest march held in Chandigarh in 2020.
During the hearing, the Chief Justice observed that sloganeering was part of a democracy. "Everyone does naarebaazi (sloganeering) in a democracy. Now that he (Mann) is holding a responsible position, we expect him to understand his responsibilities as well," the CJI remarked. The Bench, however, said it would hear the matter.
“If you are going to argue on merits, we will hear you. Otherwise, we are not inclined to interfere," the CJI told Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, who appeared for the Chandigarh Administration.
Raju informed the court that the Chandigarh Administration was facing certain technical issues in three separate petitions arising from different High Court orders. He sought time to address those issues before proceeding with the arguments.
Earlier, the High Court had held that no prima facie case was made out against the AAP leaders. It observed that the essential ingredients of the offences invoked under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) were not established.
The High Court had consequently quashed the FIR and the chargesheet registered under Sections 147 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter a public servant from duty), and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharging official duty) of the IPC.
The FIR was registered in 2020 on the complaint of constable Manpreet Kaur. She alleged that during an AAP protest against the electricity tariff hike, senior party leaders, including Bhagwant Mann, Harpal Singh Cheema, Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, Baljinder Kaur, Aman Arora and others, incited around 750 to 800 party workers to march towards the Punjab Chief Minister's residence in Sector 2, Chandigarh.
According to the police, the protesters tried to breach barricades. They allegedly resorted to stone-pelting after water cannons were used to disperse the crowd, resulting in minor injuries to several police personnel.
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