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Shamsul Huda Bakavi v. State of Madras and Ors

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Shamsul Huda Bakavi

This short write-up on “Shamsul Huda Bakavi v. State of Madras and Ors.” is written by Mr. Aanish Aggarwal from West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences.

  • Shamsul Huda Bakavi was a protestor who was protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019 on a public road without any prior permission from concerned authority.
  • Consequently, he was arrested by the police for the same and charged under Section 143 and Section 188 of the IPC.
  • Section 143 of the IPC deals with the formation of an unlawful assembly and Section 188 criminalizes the disobedience of an order that has been duly promulgated by an administrative officer.
  • The Court in its judgment quashed the FIR against Shamsul Bakavi, stating that the state had no power to lodge an FIR against Bakavi without a prior order given out by the concerned administrative officer who has promulgated the said order or by another senior officer according to Section 195(1)(a) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973(CrPc).
  • The Madras High Court also relied upon Jeevanandham and others v. State, where the Court had held that the investigative police officer had no power to register an FIR under Section 41 of the Code of Criminal Proceeding.
  • The power of the investigative officer in such cases is only limited to a preventive basis and cannot arrest anyone for the same under Code of Criminal Procedure.

 

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