- (1.) IN this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution, the petitioners who are incriminated in case 1 Crime No. 286 of 2000 under Sections 292, 293 an'! 5051. P. C. Police Station Baramandal District Almorah have pressed into service the following reliefs. " (i) Issue an order or direction in the na ture of certiorari quashing the F. I. R. dated 20-4-2000 contained in Annexure No. 1 to the writ petition. (ii) Issue a writ, order or direction to in itiate the C. B. I. INvestigation into the whole matter including the activity of Sahyog upto the stage of lodging of KI. R. and thereafter. (iii) Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari quashing the show cause notice dated 22-4- 2000 (Annexure No. 10) is sued by District Magistrate, Almora. (iv) Issue an appropriate writ order or direction to the respondent to enlarge the petitioner Nos. 1 to 6 on bail and to set them at liberty. (v) Pass such other and further order which this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case. (vi) award costs. (vii) Issue a writ, order or direction com manding the State of U. P. to pay a compensa tion which this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case, which according to the petitioners appear to be not less than Rs. 20. 000/- for each petitioner. (viii) "to punish the Police officer/officers found guilty of the contempt of the Hon'ble Supreme Court. "
(2.) PETITIONERS 1 to 5 are associated with 'sahyog', a Non-Government or ganisation registered under the Indian Societies Registration Act i860 and the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 1976. It is stated that the said Organisation was constituted to work. for the larger cause of the Society inasmuch as it imparts education on health and education with special focus on women's health'. The aforesaid Society be took a research to explore the possibility of spread of HIV/aids in Uttarakhand Region. With the avowed object of creating awareness of AIDS, the society published a study report captioned as Aids Aur Hum'- (Uttarakhand Me Aids Ki Sambhawna ). On 20th April 2000, at about 3 p. m. it is alleged, the local goons barged into t he Sahyog Head Office and gate-crashed into the Secretary's i. e. Ms Joshdhara Dasgupta's room uttered profanities and broke the window panes etc. At about 4. 30 p. m. , the local police materialised at the scene, seized all copies of the report accus ing the organisation of filthy and pornographic materials and rounded up Ms Jashodhara Dasgupta and three others. A first information report was lodged the very day. Thereupon, they were made aware that they had been taken into custody because atmosphere in the area was surcharged with frayed tempers and hostility. This incident enjoyed great media hype in different National Newspapers playing an incendiary role to work up the sentiments of the people which led to frayed tempers. As a sequel, some more proceedings in the nature of preventive action under Section 107/116 and 151 Cr. P. C. and also under Section 133 Cr. PC. were initiated. The further case of the petitioners is that after they were ar rested, no legal assistance was provided so as to enable them to move the Court for bail. It is specifically staled that Ms Tulika Srivastava, a practicing Advocate and Human Rights Activists, was not per mitted to meet the petitioners and/or to move bail application on their behalf owing to hostile resistance of the members of the local bar police officials besides the local people of Almora. It is further al leged that entire atmosphere was vitiated due to misreading of bits of information published by Sahyog in their report - Aids -Aur - Hum'. In the Supplementary af fidavit, credence has been placed on the clipping of news item published in Amar Ujala dated 5-5-2000 to prop up the case that the petitioners were handcuffed and brought hare-footed from the District Jail Almora to the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate on 4-5-2000 parading them through main market. An application for bail was moved on behalf of the petitioners before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Al mora. A contention was raised on behalf of the prosecution that the report has im paired and diminished the status of the people residing in the hill area in the eye of the whole world culminating in agitation and movement in the Uttrakhand Region. The Chief Judicial Magistrate rejected the bail application without assigning any reason whatsoever. Since the petitioners have moved this Court in the present peti tion seeking quashing of the F. I. R. and other ancillary reliefs as excerpted above, including prayer for bail in the present proceedings instead of moving the Ses sions Judge, stemming from the ground that the atmosphere there is antithetical to lair hearing. We have heard Sri Ravi Kiran Jain, Senior Counsel appearing for the petitioners, Sri Amar Jeet Singh, learned A. G. A. representing the State authorities, Sri L. P. Naithani Senior Advocate, assisted by Sri Sudhanshu Dhuliya, counsel ap pearing for the respondents at a prolix length particularly on the question of bail, for in our opinion, the matter commends full dressed hearing after exchange of af fidavits between the parties.
(3.) SRI Ravi Kiran Jain for the petitioners has contended that except the offence under Section 505 I. P. C. , other offences are abailable and so far as Section 505 I. P. C. is concerned, no offence what soever is made out and to cap it all, the maximum punishment provided therein is 3 years R. I. and by now the petitioners have already suffered incarceration for more than a month and therefore, in the facts and circumstances of the case, the petitioners' prayer for bail should be al lowed. SRI Jain further canvassed that some fundamentalists made the situation worse inasmuch as they entered the Courtroom of the Chief Judicial Magistrate Almora and provoked furore as a result of which the learned Magistrate rejected the bail application fearing a fun damentalist backlash. Learned A. G. A. Amarjeet Singh and Sri Naithani appearing for the respon dents, opposed the prayer for bail and strenuously contended that though there is no dearth of power under Article 226 of the Constitution to grant interim bail pending writ petition, the petitioners should have availed of the fon-m under Section 439 Cr. P. C. , further that no prima facie case for quashing the F. I. R. is made out and besides the situation in the area being surcharged with emotions, they should not be admitted to bail. Sri Naithani has specifically urged that the report published by Sahyog in its report Aids-Aur-Hum' has offended the senti ments of the people of entire Uttrakhand and this should be reckoned with by the Court while dealing with the petitioners' prayer for interim bail.;