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The Bombay High Court clubbed multiple FIRs on the settled principle of law, that in case of multiple FIRs, all the FIRs will be clubbed to the place of the first FIR.
The Bombay High Court's, division bench, comprising Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice N.R Borkar, clubbed the 22 FIRs filed against Ketaki Chitale, in a case related to an objectionable post against Sharad Pawar.
The controversy involved a post shared by the Petitioner on her social media “Face Book” account page, on 13th May 2022. Earlier, after the social media post controversy, the Navi Mumbai Police had opened a complaint against her under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
Later, Ketaki Chitale was arrested by the Kalwa Police Station, in May, and was granted bail by the Court. The shared post contained derogatory remarks about Sharad Pawar. The post referred to him as an "80-year-old man Pawar" and called him a "mosquito" who "hates Brahmins". An FIR was filed against her after an NCP leader filed a complaint. Subsequently, 21 more FIRs were filed based on the complaints which were mostly filed by local NCP leaders. Chitale was booked under Sections 353, 323, 143, 145, 146, 186, 189, 354, 503, 504, 120B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
The counsel for the petitioner relied upon the Apex Court’s decision in Amish Devgan vs. UOI (2021) 1 SCC 1, wherein the Court held, that in case of multiplicity of FIRs, the cases should be transferred to the place where the first FIR was filed. The Apex Court relied on the decision in TT Anthony vs UOI, (2001) 6 SCC181, “ordinarily the course of action to be adopted in such eventuality is that the FIR registered first in point of time should be treated as the main FIR and other as statements under section 162 of the Code of Criminal Procedure,1973”
The Court in its order, was of the opinion that nothing was shown as to why the settled position of law should not be applied in the present case. Therefore, the Court clubbed all the FIRs to the principal FIR at the Kalwa Police Station in Thane. The Bench noted, that the statements of the complainants/informants based on transferred FIR shall be considered as a statement under Section 162 of Code of Criminal Procedure.
The bench also directed the Maharashtra government and all the complainants to file an affidavit to clear their stand on the matter. The petition also prays compensation for the illegal arrest of Chitale.
The matter is to be taken up on 6 September 2022.
CASE TITLE: Ketaki Chitale vs. State of Maharashtra
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