Remarks against Assam CM's wife: SC stays Telangana HC order granting anticipatory bail to Pawan Khera
Bench expresses surprise over high court's order; Solicitor General terms Congress leader's move 'abuse of process' and 'forum shopping'
Spelling trouble for Congress leader Pawan Khera, the Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the Telangana High Court’s order granting him one-week transit anticipatory bail in a case registered against him in Assam for his alleged defamatory remarks against Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's wife.
Acting on a petition filed by the Assam Government’s petition against the April 10 order of the Telangana High Court, a Bench of Justice JK Maheshwari and Justice Atul S Chandurkar stayed the April 10 order of the high court, noting that Khera had submitted the Aadhaar number of his wife to show that she resided in Telangana to invoke the jurisdiction of that high court.
The top court’s order makes the Congress leader vulnerable to coercive action by the Assam Police. An Assam Police team accompanied by Delhi Police personnel had on April 7 visited Khera’s residence in connection with the case but did not find him. Officials had also claimed recovery of “incriminating” material during searches.
The order came after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta pointed out on behalf of the Assam Government that Khera moving Telangana High Court for bail in a case lodged in Assam was a “complete abuse of process” and amounted to “forum shopping”.
Mehta said the high court ignored the fact that one of the offences Khera was accused of carried a maximum punishment of 10-year imprisonment.
Staying the high court’s order, the top court said, “The document Aadhar card has been used… The front page of the Aadhar card is the name of respondent no. 1 (Pawan Khera) but the backside indicates the address of his wife. Thus, by furnishing a forged document the respondent took advantage of jurisdiction of the Telangana High Court.”
The Bench expressed surprise over the high court's order. However, it said if Khera applied for anticipatory bail in the court having jurisdiction in Assam, the order passed by the top court may not have any adverse inference.
Issuing notice to Khera on the Assam Government’s petition, the Bench asked him to file his response in three weeks.
The Telangana High Court had granted interim protection from arrest to Khera to enable him to move the competent court in Assam and seek regular bail in the case.
The Assam Police had registered an FIR in Guwahati over allegations arising from Khera’s April 5 press conference, in which he alleged that Chief Minister Sarma’s wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma held multiple passports and foreign properties that were not disclosed in the Chief Minister’s election affidavit for the April 9 Assembly polls.
During the hearing before the Telangana High Court, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Khera, had argued that the FIR was a product of political vendetta and that the Congress leader was being targeted for questioning the Assam Chief Minister and his family.
The allegations, even if assumed to be incorrect, would at best constitute defamation and not warrant arrest, he had argued.
Assam Advocate General Devajit Saikia had questioned the maintainability of Khera’s petition before the Telangana High Court on the ground that being a resident of Delhi; the Congress leader had no compelling reason to seek relief in Telangana.
