Jabalpur:The Madhya Pradesh High Court allowed the plea of a farmer challenging his externment from Burhanpur and directed the chief secretary to call a meeting of district magistrates to "give them confidence and directions to not pass orders under political pressure".
It also imposed a cost of Rs 50000 on the respondents, including the state government through the principal secretary of the Department of Home and Internal Affairs, the principal secretary Department of Forest, the Indore divisional commissioner, the Burhanpur district collector, Burhanpur district forest officer, and District Forest Officer Vijay Singh.
In its order of Monday, the HC said the state was free to recover the said amount from the district magistrate Burhanpur.
"The Chief Secretary of the State of MP is requested to call a meeting of all the District Magistrates and give them confidence and directions to not to pass orders under political pressure without appreciating the true intent and meaning of the law as contained in the (MP Rajya Suraksha Adhiniyam) Act of 1990," a division bench of MP High Court comprising Justice Vivek Agrawal observed in its order of Monday.
It is evident that the district magistrate has tried to gloss over his failure to record statements by misleading the court by saying that none of the witnesses came forward to record statements, the order stated. The HC said forest offences are not mentioned in Section 6 of the Adhiniyam of 1990.
"Secondly, the word used is 'If a person has been convicted'. But there is no material on record to show that, about two offences under the Indian Penal Code, the petitioner is convicted. What is mentioned by the District Magistrate is that FIRs have been registered against him," the HC said.
The court observed that the petition could not have been subjected to the invocation of Provisions of M.P. Rajya Suraksha Adhiniyam, 1990 merely based on the registration of FIR and without there being any conviction. "Therefore, order of externment is apparently illegal and is set aside," Justice Agrawal said in the order.
Petitioner Anantram Awase was extended from Burhanpur and its neighbouring districts for one year on an order dated January 23, 2024, by the court of collector and district magistrate. It has been observed that the district magistrate was acting more than his authority and was guided by extraneous consideration rather than considerations contained in the law, the HC order said.
