The Gujarat High Court has quashed an externment order passed by the Assistant Commissioner of Police, ‘A’ Division, Ahmedabad City on November 13, last year, whereby Mohmmad Kaleem Siddique was externed for a period of one year from several districts – Ahmedabad (City and Rural), Gandhinagar, Kheda and Mehsana.
The Single Bench of Justice Paresh Upadhyay observed that the externment order was issued to Siddique on the basis of four FIRs. One was registered with Ramol Police Station on January 21, 2018 and the second was registered with Rakhiyal Police Station on December 19, 2019. Further, the court observed that the remaining two FIRs against Siddique were not even referred to in the externment notice.
“The externment order is based on four FIRs, two of which were not even referred to in the notice. The externment order therefore needs to be set aside on this count alone,” said Justice Paresh. The High court said that there are other factors that tilt the balance in favour of Siddique.
The Bench referred to the 2018 FIR and noted that Siddique has already been acquitted in the matter. The 2019 FIR was registered against a crowd of unknown persons, including Siddique who were demonstrating against the policy of the Government qua NRC/CAA. The court observed, “Citizen cannot be subjected to externment for raising his grievance against the Government. On this count also, the externment order needs to be set aside.”
It also rejected the argument made by the government that the reason behind not adding the details of two other FIRs in the externment notice was a mere “typographical error”. The court recorded, “The defense like this needs to be rejected.” Accordingly, the externment order passed in November 2020 was quashed by the Single-Judge Bench.
Dr. Kafeel Khan, another CAA-NRC protestor has been cleared of all criminal proceedings by the Allahabad High Court after years of harassment. Dr. Khan was not only booked for hate speech under the Indian Penal Code, but was also detained under the National Security Act for his speech against the legislation at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in December 2019. After spending almost 9 months in jail, his detention order under NSA was revoked by the High Court and he was subsequently released from Mathura jail in September 2020.
The order may be read here:
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