HC dismisses petition seeking case against Yogi over 2018 speech

According to the petition, a speech made by Adityanath in Rajasthan’s Alwar on November 28, 2018, in the run-up to the state elections hurt religious sentiments of “followers of Sri Bajrangbali”. The petitioner claimed that his religious sentiments were hurt after he read about the speech in a
local newspaper.

The court, while hearing the petition filed by the advocate, Naval Kishor Sharma, dismissed it and also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on the lawyer. “He has clearly abused the process of law,” said Justice Samit Gopal.

The petitioner first filed a complaint against Adityanath with the Mau police, but after no action was taken, he filed a complaint before the Mau MP and MLA court, which dismissed the complaint on March 11, 2022 “with the observation that the court has no territorial jurisdiction to entertain” it. The petitioner filed a criminal revision against the order before the Mau Sessions Judge. The revision was also dismissed by a local court on April 26, 2022, after which the lawyer approached the High Court.

The High Court said, “At this stage, it would be apt to state that there has been a concurrent finding by two courts with regards to the question of territorial jurisdiction. The same is also been affirmed by this court.”

“It is trite law that there has to be legal evidence in support of the allegations levelled against a person. In the present case the only evidence relied upon is the newspaper reporting and nothing else. For what has been stated above and as per the settled legal position, a newspaper report is not a ‘legal evidence’,” the court added.