Supreme Court Upholds HC Order Quashing Complaint Against Shah Rukh Khan In 2017 Stampede Case

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea assailing the order and judgment of the High Court of Gujarat which quashed a criminal case filed against the Bollywood Actor Shah Rukh Khan. A case was registered against the actor regarding a stampede which ensued at the Vadodara Railway Station in January 2017.

The top court bench comprising of Justice Ajay Rastogi and Justice C. T. Ravikumar passed the order refusing to interfere with the decision taken by the High Court quashing the complaint filed by Jitendra Madhubai Solanki.

 The unfortunate incident occurred when in January 2017, the actor was on a promotion drive of the feature film "Raees", travelling from Mumbai to Delhi. A huge crowd had gathered at the Vadodra Railway Station to catch a glimpse of the actor, which resulted in the stampede. Due to the stampede that occurred several people were reported injured and one person died.

The complainant filed a private complaint before the Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Vadodra that stampede occurred due to the presence of Shah Rukh Khan at the Vadodra Railway Station and him throwing t-shirts and smiley balls at the crowd.

The Court took cognizance of the matter and issued summons against the actor to face charges under Sections 336 (Act endangering life or personal safety of others), 337 (Causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), and 338 (Causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) of IPC and Sections 145 (Drunkenness or nuisance), 150 (Maliciously wrecking or attempting to wreck a train), 152 (Maliciously hurting or attempting to hurt persons travelling by railway), 154 (Endangering safety of persons travelling by railway by rash or negligent act or omission) and 155(1)(a) (having entered a compartment wherein no berth or seat has been reserved by a railway administration for his use) of the Railways Act, 1989.

Khan then approached the High Court filing an application seeking a quashing of the said complaint, the Single Judge bench of the High Court of Gujarat comprising of Justice Nikhil S. Kariel by an order dated 27th April, 2022 quashed the complaint filed against him.

The High Court while passing the order had noted that Khan was promoting his movie at the Railway Station, after having obtained permission for doing so from the concerned authorities. Further, the Court observed that neither his acts could be termed as being of an extremely high degree of negligence or recklessness nor could be the acts stated to be proximate or efficient cause for the alleged incident.

The petitioner in the matter Jitendra Madhubai Solanki was represented before the apex court by Senior Advocate Vijay Kumar and the respondent in the matter Shah Rukh Khan was represented by Senior Advocate Siddhartha Luthra along with a team from Karanjawala & Co., Advocates led by Ms. Ruby Singh Ahuja and Mr. Sandeep Kapur, Senior Partners.

Case Title : JITENDRA MADHUBHAI SOLANKI Versus SHAH RUKH KHAN AND ANR. - Diary No. 27918-2022