Punjab-Haryana High Court has issued an order to cancel 1112 FIRs registered against people under Section 188 in Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh for breaking the Covid protocol. This order has been issued in the matter of cognizance taken by the High Court for early disposal of criminal cases pending against the Hon’ble.
Data were sought from Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh as to how many criminal cases are pending against the honorable people in their areas. After looking at the figures, the court found that FIRs were registered against many leaders under Section 188 for violating Corona rules. Thousands of such cases are still going on in the courts. Many politicians were also included in these.
The High Court had said that the time of the epidemic has now passed and thousands of these cases are still pending in the courts. Due to this, the functioning of the courts is being affected, hence in order to dispose of all such cases together, the High Court took cognizance and put a stay on the trial of all these cases.
Compulsion to leave home
The High Court had said that during the Corona epidemic, the circumstances were such that rules were strictly implemented to save people. People were largely following the orders, but there could have been extenuating circumstances which might have forced them to step out of their homes in violation of the orders to meet their needs of food, medicine, etc.
There is no need to prolong the cases
Now the situation has changed, there is no need to prolong these cases any longer. Thousands of cases registered during that period are pending in the court and the courts are heavily burdened with these cases, hence it is necessary to dispose of these cases.
84 cases were registered in Chandigarh
Now the High Court has ordered to cancel 1112 such FIRs registered between 15 March 2020 and 28 March 2022 in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. This order will be applicable to the honorable people as well as the common people. 859 FIRs are pending in Punjab, 169 in Haryana and 84 in Chandigarh.
