Nagpur: Justices Sunil Shukre and Avinash Gharote of Nagpur bench of Bombay high court last month dismissed a petition by Chetan Meshram against his externment order after considering criminal activity at his ‘mental level’ if not in physical form, as evidenced by his crime soon after release from jail. Interestingly. the HC also asked the accused to ‘sit down quietly and contemplate, and improve himself’.
While vacating ad-interim relief granted to Meshram, the court underlined the misuse of liberty granted to him earlier, by pointing at an offence registered against him in January this year.
The high court, based on it’s judgement in Meshram’s case, has now dismissed yet another plea to quash externment order of Ramkumar Pal on Tuesday. Zonal DCP Neelotpal was instrumental in preparing the affidavits, filed through additional public prosecutor SM Ghodeshwar, to fight the two petitions challenging his externment orders.
Meshram, through his counsel RH Rawlani, had challenged the externment order issued in 2017 but brought into operation in December last year. The counsel for the petitioner had challenged the order on various grounds, including the delay of two years before it was brought into operation.
Meshram’s counsel had also argued that there was no offence registered between 2015 and 2017, following which the externment order was passed. The petitioner was in Latur jail from mid-2017 to May 2020. In January this year, Jaripatka police had arrested him under the Arms Act.
Pointing at his arrest in January, the high court said the petitioner’s being in jail explained the interlude of calm in physical activity but not what was in his ‘mind’, as he was arrested for an offence soon after release. The court, referring to the crime, stated that ‘the criminal activity, if not seen in the physical world, was there always at the mental level of the petitioner and it manifested in physical form the moment physical leash was removed’.
Further consolidating the ground for dismissing the petition, the court also intriguingly mentioned that the petitioner must sit down quietly and contemplate and ‘improve himself’ for his own benefit and also the society at large. The court also said rejecting the plea would also bring respite to the society.