Chandigarh, Feb 9: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has quashed an FIR and a subsequent summoning order against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra, who was accused of providing false information in his 2022 election affidavit. The court found that the legal proceedings initiated against the Sanour legislator were conducted without proper jurisdiction, as the police and the local magistrate failed to follow mandatory procedural requirements for non-cognizable offences.
The case originated from a complaint filed by the Returning Officer of the Sanour Assembly constituency, alleging that Pathanmajra had furnished inaccurate details in his Form-26 affidavit during the nomination process. Based on this letter, an FIR was registered at the Julkan police station in Patiala on February 10, 2022. However, Justice Tribhuvan Dahiya, while presiding over the petition, noted that the offences cited under the IPC and the Representation of the People Act did not grant the police the authority to act independently.
“As per mandatory procedure laid down under Section 155 of the CrPC, investigation for such offences could not have been carried out by the police by lodging the aforementioned FIR without an order of the Magistrate,” Justice Dahiya observed. He noted that because the alleged offences were non-cognizable, the police could not have registered the case or conducted an investigation without prior permission from a Magistrate, rendering the entire process void.
The court also scrutinized the actions of the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) in Patiala, who had issued a summoning order on April 13, 2023. Justice Dahiya mentioned that the CJM erred by taking cognizance of a complaint that was addressed to a Deputy Superintendent of Police rather than directly to the court. He noted that the procedural lapse meant the summoning order was also passed without the necessary legal jurisdiction.
“The CJM could not have taken cognisance of the complaint filed by the Returning Officer which was addressed to the DSP and not to the Magistrate,” the court noted. Justice Dahiya directly said that both the registration of the FIR and the subsequent judicial orders were legally unsustainable. Consequently, the High Court allowed the petition, effectively ending all criminal proceedings against the AAP leader regarding the affidavit allegations.
