Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh of the Allahabad High Court recently observed that in a democracy based on adult franchise, the political activist and other public-spirited persons would have the right of protest against the Administration by staging Dharana etc. against perceived discrimination/ atrocities, inaction, omission or commission of the State Authorities.

The judge made the observation while dealing with an application filed by Minister of State (Independent Charge) in the Uttar Pradesh Government Dinesh Pratap Singh for quashing a 2013 criminal case lodged against him in connection with a protest he staged against the then party in power. 

Singh had alleged that the case was filed against him to put pressure on him as Samajwadi Party wanted him to join it then. 

The court observed that in the present matter, the protest staged by Singh and his supporters might have caused inconvenience to the commuters,but no offence was committed by them. 

Court also took note of the fact that the State Government has already granted permission to withdraw from prosecution against Singh in the present matter pursuant to which application under Section 321 CrPC has already been filed.

Therefore, court allowed Singh's application and quashed the proceedings in the case against him. 

In his application, Singh had stated that he is a political activist and being the same, when in 2013 he saw that in an offence in which the name of local MLA was also involved but the police were not investigating the matter in a fair and impartial manner and were not taking any action against the MLA, he along with 40-50 persons staged a protest. 

He claimed that the then Chief of the Samajwadi Party Chief was annoyed with him already as he had denied joining his party and therefore, several false cases came to be registered against him as political vendetta. In the same line, in the present matter also, only to harass him, a case was lodged against him and others on the allegations that the protest staged by him caused immense inconvenience to the commuters.

In the present matter, the charge sheet was filed against Singh and other co-accused under Sections 141, 145, 283, and 341 of the Indian Penal Code. 

Case Title: Dinesh Pratap Singh v. State Of U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy. Home, Govt. Lko.