Overview
- Justice Arun Dev Choudhury set aside the Kamrup Metropolitan sessions court’s September 22, 2023 order that had allowed three additional prosecution witnesses.
- The High Court said the complainant’s application was wholly vague and bereft of particulars, finding the sessions court mechanically overturned a reasoned magistrate’s refusal.
- Interpreting Section 254(2) of the CrPC, the court stressed the magistrate’s permissive discretion "if he thinks fit" as distinct from Section 311’s higher threshold of necessity.
- The trial magistrate was directed to dispose of the case expeditiously, with the court noting Rahul Gandhi’s status as a sitting Member of Parliament.
- Filed in 2016 by RSS worker Anjan Kumar Bora over Gandhi’s 2015 Barpeta Satra remark, the case had already examined seven prosecution witnesses before the attempt to add three more, which Gandhi challenged in July 2024.