Magistrate Meeting BJP Leader In Chamber No Ground To Transfer Case: Allahabad High Court Dismisses Transfer Plea

The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday rejected a plea to transfer a case to another court on the ground that the Magistrate presently hearing the case had met a Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) leader in his chamber.

Justice Karunesh Singh Pawar observed that just because the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) met a political leader, it cannot be the sole ground for transferring or withdrawing a case from a particular court.

"The Executive Officers such as Sub-Divisional Magistrate also do various administrative functions wherein they are supposed to meet the general public in day to day basis for discharging his duties and regular Tehsil Divas are hosted in every Tehsil at least once in a week where the general member of public come and meet him. This ground alone cannot be a ground for transferring or withdrawing the case from a particular court", the Court opined.

The plea moved by one Himanshu Singh sought to quash of the order dated September 22, 2021, passed by the court of District Magistrate, Bahraich which had rejected the petitioner's prayer to seek transfer of the proceedings to any other SDM Magistrate.

It was pointed out to the Court that such a transfer application had been filed under Section 411 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) was filed on the ground that the husband of opposite party no. 2 namely Udai Pratap Singh is a local BJP leader and has contested elections as a member of the Jila Panchayat from ward no. 46 of Visheshwarganj, District Bahraich. It was further averred that he frequently meets the concerned Sub-Divisional Magistrate in his chamber.

As a result, the petitioner submitted that he is under a legitimate apprehension that he may not get justice from the SDM before whom the proceedings under Section 145 CrPC are pending.

On the other hand, the Additional Government Advocate contended that apart from the 'bald assertion' no material had been placed by the petitioner before the Court to support such a contention.

Agreeing with the submission, the Court noted that the petitioner's contentions are not supported with any material to substantiate these his pleadings.

"However, he has not filed any material in support of this case to show as to why he will not get justice", the Court added further.

Accordingly, the plea was rejected with the direction that pending proceedings under Section 145 CrPC shall be expedited at an early date.

"The impugned order does not suffer from any illegality as while passing the impugned order the District Magistrate Bahraich has recorded the reasons as to why the prayer of the petitioner has been rejected. I am satisfied with the reasoning recorded by the District Magistrate. The petition lacks merit and is accordingly dismissed," the Court directed.

Case Title: Himanshu Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh

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