HC: Magistrate should carefully scrutinize the papers and bestow his attention to the submissions of the Advocate before granting police custody. Read Judgment

Karnataka High Court Bench has expounded that,“It was incumbent upon the learned Magistrate to carefully scrutinize the papers and bestow his attention to the submissions of the Advocate for the petitioner before granting police custody.

The bench comprising of Justice P.S.Dinesh Kumar passed an order in the case titled as Jaikant S vs. State of Karnataka.

The facts of the case are S.P., General Secretary of State JDS lodged a complaint alleging that Jayakanth had uploaded defamatory posts about former Prime Minister Shri.H.D.Devegowda, Chief Minister Shri. H.D.Kumaraswamy and Shri.Nikhil Kumaraswamy in ‘facebook’ and ‘instagram’ pages captioned as ‘Troll Maga’. Jayakanth approached the City Civil Court, Bengaluru seeking anticipatory bail. By order the  Session Judge, Bengaluru granted anticipatory bail with a direction to surrender before the Police within one week therefrom.

The petitioners alleged that the petitioner has not committed any offence; that FIRs have been registered at the behest of the ruling party workers; that police have acted in a high-handed manner and taken the petitioner into custody by registering second FIR to defeat the bail order granted by the learned Sessions Judge.

The Karnataka High Court stated that,“It was incumbent upon the learned Magistrate to carefully scrutinize the papers and bestow his attention to the submissions of the Advocate for the petitioner before granting police custody. A special care was required in the instant case because petitioner was granted anticipatory bail by the learned Sessions Judge, who is superior to him in hierarchy.”

Further it was held that by the act of the learned Magistrate, petitioner remained in police custody in spite of an anticipatory bail order in his favour. This is a serious matter and requires correction.

The High Court passed an order directing State to pay cost of Rs.1,00,000/- (Rupees One Lakh) to the petitioner within one month from today.

Bench directed Director General & IG to initiate departmental enquiry into the matter and submit a report to the Registrar General within three months from today. Bench further added that State shall recover the cost from the salary of officers found guilty in the Departmental Enquiry.

Read Judgment @LatestLaws.com, Click Here