Gujarat HC asks MLA if he supports externment order against man after tiff with son

The Gujarat High Court on Monday asked an MLA whether he supports an externment order issued by authorities against a man after his alleged argument with the legislator's son for his father not doing work of people in his assembly constituency.

Ahmedabad:The Gujarat High Court on Monday asked an MLA whether he supports an externment order issued by authorities against a man after his alleged argument with the legislator's son for his father not doing work of people in his assembly constituency. The HC raised serious objection to the order passed against the man, extending him from seven districts after his alleged heated exchange with the MLA's son, and granted an interim stay on the order.

The court also issued a notice to the BJP MLA, CK Raulji, after tagging him as a respondent in a petition challenging the externment order.
One Pravin Charan challenged an order passed against him by the Sub- Divisional Magistrate (SDM) on June 24 externing him from seven districts for a period of two years after an FIR was filed against him at the Godhra taluka police station on June 14.

The FIR at Godhra in Panchmahal district was registered on the basis of a complaint lodged by the son of BJP legislator Raulji under sections 504 (intentional insult) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC following his heated exchange with the man over the phone. The HC also issued a notice to the SDM. Charan is a resident of a village in Panchmahal district, while Raulji is the MLA from Godhra.

Staying the externment order as being "prima facie beyond the authority of law," Justice Paresh Upadhyay said, "If the grievance of the citizen against local MLAs is to be dealt with in this manner, not only the citizen needs to be protected, even the response needs to be asked from the concerned MLA, whether he supports such an order." The judge then directed Raulji to join as a "party respondent" and issued him a notice returnable on August 13.

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The court observed that from the gist of the FIR dated June 14, it appears the petitioner (Charan) complained as to why the MLA is not doing work of people after which heated words were exchanged between him and Raulji's son, Malavdipsinh. Following the June 24 externment order, Charan moved the HC through his lawyer Nidhi Barot.

"Thus, on merits, as an off-shoot of the said grievance of a citizen, an FIR came to be registered against him on the written complaint of the son of the said MLA and the deputy collector has readily obliged by ordering externment of the said citizen, even beyond the powers vested in the officer," the HC observed. The court said that two other FIRs, which also form the basis of the externment order under challenge, were filed in 2017 and 2019 and are "relatively stable."

"Whether on the basis of the said FIRs, externment order could be passed itself is an aspect which may be subsequently gone into by this court. However, there is a glaring aspect that, the SDM Godhra has passed the impugned order of externing the petitioner from even the district of Anand, which is not within the local limits of his jurisdiction," Justice Upadhyay said.

"That district (Anand) is not even contiguous thereto, as contemplated under Section 56(b) of the Gujarat Police Act, where from the power is derived. The impugned externment order is thus, without authority of law," he said. The externment order issued by the Godhra SDM was unsustainable, the court noted. "Thus, on merits, the impugned order is vulnerable and on competence, it is unsustainable because the order of externing the petitioner is passed even from the district which is not contiguous to the district in which the SDM is working," it said.

(PTI)