Read Time: 04 minutes

Synopsis

In the writ petition filed by a man accused of burning the copies of Ramcharitmanas, the Allahabad High Court at Lucknow bench recently directed the Uttar Pradesh Police to follow the mandate of Section 41A, CrPC as well as the directions issued by the Supreme Court in the case of Arnesh Kumar Vs. State of Bihar (2014).

The division bench of Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Narendra Kumar Johari passed the order in the plea which essentially sought direction to quash the FIR in the case. Though court denied that relief, it asked the police authorities to follow the abovementioned mandate and guidelines. 

The First Information Report (FIR) in the case was lodged under Sections 120-B, 142, 143, 153-A, 295, 295-A, 298, 504, 505(2), 506 of the Indian Penal Code on January 29, 2023, at PGI Police Station in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. 

The Lucknow Police had booked 10 named and several unidentified persons on the allegations that they burnt photocopied pages of Ramcharitmanas in support of Samajwadi Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya. Maurya had claimed that certain Chuapayis of the book allegedly carry objectionable comments on women and Dalits.

When the present plea was taken up for hearing, the counsel for the petitioner/accused namely Mahendra Pratap Singh confined his prayer for issuing direction to the police authorities to follow the mandate of Section 41A, CrPC for the reason that the offences mentioned in the impugned First Information Report carry the sentence up to 7 years of imprisonment.

As per the Supreme Court's ruling in Arnesh Kumar case, the arrest should be the exception where the offence is punishable with less than 7 years imprisonment. The Top Court had also ruled that in lieu of arrest in such cases, the accused should be served a notice for appearance under Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

Case Title: Mahendra Pratap Singh v. State Of U.P. Thru. Secy. Home U.P. Civil Secrett. Lko. And Others