The Bombay High Court ordered the principal district judge of Pune to investigate how BJP leader Kirit Somaiya obtained a copy of an order issued by a magistrate in a case in which Somaiya was not a party in any way.
The decision in question was issued by a magistrate in a case in which Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Hasan Mushrif has been charged.
A division bench of Justice Revati Mohite Dere and Justice Sharmila Deshmukh ruled that it was a “serious matter” and ordered the district judge to investigate how a non-party to the proceedings obtained a copy of a judicial order without applying for a certified copy and when the copy of the order was not uploaded on the official court website.
The division bench directed the district judge to complete the investigation and report back to the bench by next month.
The order came in response to Mushrif’s plea that the first information report (FIR) issued against him in Kolhapur on charges of cheating be quashed.
Mushrif alleged that there was a “deliberate endeavour” to take action against him in instances handled by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
“Somaiya has been making false and frivolous allegations against the petitioner and in fact predicting the actions taken by various law enforcement agencies especially the ED, with an oblique intention of getting the Mushrif arrested in any manner possible,” Mushrif’s petition stated.
Appearing for Mushrif, Senior Advocate Abad Ponda pointed out that Somaiya had received the order copy and tweeted it even before Mushrif got it.
Advocate Ponda further stated that despite the fact that Somaiya was not a party to the proceedings, the FIR copy was promptly made accessible to him, and that it has yet to be uploaded on the police website. Mushrif himself obtained a copy of the FIR through Somaiya’s tweet.
The bench noticed that Somaiya had posted a complete copy, along with a copy of the magistrate judgement, in a tweet. It further noted that Somaiya appeared to have gotten a copy of the FIR the day after it was registered.
The bench then ordered that the additional public prosecutor, Jayesh Yagnik, file an affidavit stating how Somaiya obtained the FIR copy, if it was uploaded to the government website, and when it was completed.
The bench posted the matter for further hearing on April 24,2023. It also directed the Maharashtra police to not take any coercive action against Mushrif until further decisions were made.
