Supreme Court extends protection from arrest to Simarjeet Singh Bains

New Delhi, February 3

The Supreme Court today extended for a week the protection from arrest given to Lok Insaaf Party MLA Simarjeet Singh Bains in a criminal case even as it pulled him up for slapping several cases against a woman who filed a rape complaint against the lawmaker.

Taking exception to “misuse of police machinery”, a Bench led by CJI NV Ramana also stayed the criminal proceedings in four cases filed against the woman complainant for two weeks.

Misuse of machinery

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What is happening in your state? How many cases he (Bains) has filed against the lady… You (state) can’t be a party to such kind of misuse of police machinery. —SC to Punjab Advocate General

While Bains has challenged an order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court refusing to stay a non-bailable warrant issued against him by the trial court in the rape case, the woman complainant has moved the top court seeking relief in criminal cases lodged against her.

The Bench, which had on Tuesday given protection from arrest to Bains for two days, raised questions over his conduct and posed several questions to the Punjab Government.

“What is happening in your state? How many cases he (Bains) has filed against the lady, and he wants anticipatory bail and the lady should go to jail… You (state) can’t be a party to such kind of misuse of police machinery,” the Bench told Punjab Advocate General DS Patwalia. It asked the state of Punjab to file its reply and posted the matter for hearing after a week.

Maintaining that the state didn’t have “much role in the dispute”, which seemed to be between two parties, Patwalia said he would seek instructions and file a response. As the guardian of the law, the state has a duty to protect it, he added.

As the hearing commenced, the CJI asked senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi: “Have you seen your client’s activity? How your man is harassing people… he is a public representative, an MLA for two times. Is this the way to behave?”

As Rohatgi said the MLA was innocent and the cases against the woman had been filed by other people as she ran a job racket for getting people employment in Canada, the CJI said: “I want the Advocate General of Punjab to appear in this matter.”