- UP govt dropped charges against 162 farmets from Sitapur
- Allahbad HC ruled that there is no further scope for apprehension to breach of peace
- Court held that magistrates must exercise caution before passing arbitrary orders
TAD NewsDesk, Uttar Pradesh: Recently, proceedings against 162 farmers from Sitapur were dropped by the Uttar Pradesh government. The state counsel had issued notices of personal bonds and sureties of ‘exorbitant’ sums up to ₹10 lakh for participating in the ongoing farmers’ protests.
On February 2, the U.P. Additional Advocate General Shahi told the Allahabad High Court that it has dropped cases against the Sitapur farmers as “there is no further apprehension to breach of peace or disturbance of public tranquillity”.
The division bench that heard the petition case filed against the notices constituted of Justices Ramesh Sinha and Rajeev Singh. The bench hoped that the District Magistrate of Sitapur and sub-ordinate SDMs should be “cautious” in passing such arbitrary orders in the future.
“Their orders, act and conduct should not be such which reflects arbitrariness and against the principles of natural justice,” the court said.
Facts of the case
- 162 farmers owning tractors received notices for executing the bond of ₹10 lakh and two sureties of the like amount
- Only 43 had appeared in the court for the hearing
- As per the fresh challan report, the proceedings against all the 162 persons were dropped
However, the government counsel was unable to provide a justification to the court the reason for issuing notices to the farmers, preventing them from being a part of the farmers’ agitation.
Source – The Hindu
