The government has formed two committees at the district and ministry levels to withdraw politically motivated harassment cases.
The committees will recommend the withdrawal of harassment cases filed against political leaders, activists, and innocent individuals over political vendettas in recent years.
The information was confirmed in a notification from the Public Security Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs on Sunday.
District-level committee
The district-level committee will be chaired by the district magistrate, with the additional district magistrate serving as the member secretary.
The superintendent of police (or a deputy commissioner of police in metropolitan areas) will be a member, along with the public prosecutor (or the metropolitan public prosecutor for city cases).
The responsibilities of the committee will include applications for the withdrawal of politically motivated harassment cases must be submitted to the district magistrate of the respective district by December 31.
The application must be accompanied by a certified copy of the FIR and the charge sheet, where applicable.
Within 7 working days of receiving the application, the district magistrate will forward the application to the public prosecutor (or metropolitan public prosecutor) for their opinion.
The public prosecutor must send their opinion to the district magistrate within 15 working days of receiving the application.
The district magistrate will present the application along with the public prosecutor's opinion to the district committee within 7 working days.
If the committee finds that the case was filed for political or other harassment purposes, it will recommend the withdrawal of the case to the government.
The deputy magistrate must send the recommendation along with the FIR, charge sheet, and the application to the Ministry of Home Affairs within 45 working days, using a specified format.
Ministry-level committee
A committee has been formed, chaired by the Adviser to the Ministry of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs.
The deputy secretary, senior assistant secretary, or assistant secretary of the Public Security Division's Law-1 branch will serve as the member secretary.
Upon receiving recommendations from the district committees, the ministry-level committee will review them, identify the cases eligible for withdrawal, and take necessary steps to withdraw the cases.
Politically motivated cases under the Anti-Corruption Commission Act, 2004, cannot be withdrawn without a written order from the commission, as per Section 10(4) of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1958. Therefore, a list of such cases must be prepared, and further decisions regarding these cases will be made later.
