Relief for Subramanian Swamy! HC suspends proceeding against him for 4 weeks

Guwahati, Jul 24: Gauhati High Court today suspended proceedings for four weeks against BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in a lower court for allegedly delivering a hate speech on Ayodhya issue here in March and issued notice to Assam government and the complainant.

Swamy, who arrived at the High Court amidst tight security, argued his case in person before Justice B K Sharma urging the court to quash criminal proceedings against him in Karimganj Additional Judicial Magistrate court, which had also issued a non-bailable warrant against him after he failed to appear before it.

Swamy had filed a writ petition WP(C) 4186/2015 under Article 226 and 227 of the Constitution for quashing criminal proceedings pending against him in the Karimganj Court.

Justice Sharma after hearing Swamy's arguments issued notice returnable by four weeks and till then suspended the proceedings in Karimganj Court. The court directed the listing of the case after four weeks.

Swamy while referring to the Ayodhya issue had made some comments at a function here on March 15. The student wing of the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) had filed a complaint at the Latasil police station against Swamy following which Assam Police had registered an FIR against him in March.

The Karimganj Additional Judicial Magistrate had subsequently issued summons to him on March 19 in connection with the speech and as he failed to appear before the Court, a non-bailable warrant was issued against him last month.

Swamy moved the Supreme Court which on July two stayed the execution of the non-bailable warrant against him by six weeks and allowed him to approach a "competent court" within that period and accordingly he appeared before the Gauhati High Court today.

PTI