Apex court rejects Jharkhand’s plea on HC order quashing FIR against BJP MPs

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the Jharkhand Government’s petition against the state high court’s order quashing an FIR against BJP MPs Nishikant Dubey and Manoj Tiwari, who allegedly forced the air traffic control to allow their aircraft to take off from the Deoghar airport after sunset in 2022.

A Bench of Justice AS Oka and Justice Manmohan, however, granted the state government liberty to forward the material collected during the probe to an authorised officer under the Aircraft Act in four weeks.

The competent authority of the DGCA shall take a decision in accordance with law as to whether a complaint needs to be filed under the Act, said the Bench which had on December 18 reserved its verdict on the state government’s petition against the Jharkhand High Court verdict on March 13, 2023.

The case relates to an FIR lodged at the Kunda police station in Deoghar district of Jharkhand against nine persons , including Dubey and Tiwari.

The two MPs had allegedly forced ATC personnel at the Deoghar airport to clear their chartered flight for take off after the scheduled permitted time on August 31, 2022, in violation of security protocol at airports.

The high court had quashed the FIR on grounds that no prior sanction was taken from the Lok Sabha Secretariat as per the Aircraft (Amendment) Act, 2020. Under the law, any FIR against an MP must be approved by the secretariat.