ABHIJEET DAS Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution, the petitioners who are incriminated in case 1 Crime No. 286 of 2000 under Sections 292, 293 an'! 5051. P. C. Police Station Baramandal District Almorah have pressed into service the following reliefs. " (i) Issue an order or direction in the na ture of certiorari quashing the F. I. R. dated 20-4-2000 contained in Annexure No. 1 to the writ petition. (ii) Issue a writ, order or direction to in itiate the C. B. I. INvestigation into the whole matter including the activity of Sahyog upto the stage of lodging of KI. R. and thereafter. (iii) Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari quashing the show cause notice dated 22-4- 2000 (Annexure No. 10) is sued by District Magistrate, Almora. (iv) Issue an appropriate writ order or direction to the respondent to enlarge the petitioner Nos. 1 to 6 on bail and to set them at liberty. (v) Pass such other and further order which this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case. (vi) award costs. (vii) Issue a writ, order or direction com manding the State of U. P. to pay a compensa tion which this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case, which according to the petitioners appear to be not less than Rs. 20. 000/- for each petitioner. (viii) "to punish the Police officer/officers found guilty of the contempt of the Hon'ble Supreme Court. "

(2.) PETITIONERS 1 to 5 are associated with 'sahyog', a Non-Government or ganisation registered under the Indian Societies Registration Act i860 and the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 1976. It is stated that the said Organisation was constituted to work. for the larger cause of the Society inasmuch as it imparts education on health and education with special focus on women's health'. The aforesaid Society be took a research to explore the possibility of spread of HIV/aids in Uttarakhand Region. With the avowed object of creating awareness of AIDS, the society published a study report captioned as Aids Aur Hum'- (Uttarakhand Me Aids Ki Sambhawna ).

(3.) SRI Ravi Kiran Jain for the petitioners has contended that except the offence under Section 505 I. P. C. , other offences are abailable and so far as Section 505 I. P. C. is concerned, no offence what soever is made out and to cap it all, the maximum punishment provided therein is 3 years R. I. and by now the petitioners have already suffered incarceration for more than a month and therefore, in the facts and circumstances of the case, the petitioners' prayer for bail should be al lowed. SRI Jain further canvassed that some fundamentalists made the situation worse inasmuch as they entered the Courtroom of the Chief Judicial Magistrate Almora and provoked furore as a result of which the learned Magistrate rejected the bail application fearing a fun damentalist backlash.