Supreme Court Bars Fresh UP Police FIR Against Couple Who Alleged Harassment By Multiple FIRs

The Supreme Court yesterday restrained Uttar Pradesh authorities from registering any fresh FIR against a couple from a politically influential family who accused the state of lodging multiple false cases against them with oblique motives.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta passed the order, after hearing Senior Advocate Indira Jaising on behalf of the petitioner-couple.

At the outset of the hearing, the bench questioned Jaising as to why the petitioners did not approach the Allahabad High Court for relief. In response, the senior counsel said that they are not even able to set foot in the city, given the rampant registration of FIRs.

"The moment I go to Allahabad, a fresh FIR is passed. 9 FIRs already! The whole process has become the punishment", urged Jaising, while highlighting that in 8 out of 9 cases, bail orders have been passed on merits. In some cases, she said, petitioner No.1 was not even in the city at the relevant time. 

She further contended that the petitioners seek protection so that they can atleast attend the pending trials, "The trial is nearing conclusion, the state applied for stay on the ground that under Section 14 of the Gangsters Act, the 'gangster' issued is to be first decided and then the trial. The trial court rejected and made observation that it is being browbeaten and being coerced into giving an order...the trial court refused to give a stay of the main proceedings, they go to the High Court. As of today, the trials are all stayed! I want the trials to come to an end on merits".

After hearing the submissions, the Court ordered, "issue notice...meanwhile, no fresh FIR shall be registered against the petitioners without prior permission of this Court".

Briefly put, the petitioners claim to be from a politically influential family in Uttar Pradesh. While one of them (Rameez Nemat) is a domestic cricket player, the other is his wife, who contested as an independent candidate in the UP Legislative Assembly Elections, 2022.

It is alleged that the registration of "false" cases by UP police was triggered in 2021, when petitioner No.1's mother-in-law (and petitioner No.2's mother) decided to contest in Zila Panchayat elections on public demand.

As per claims, the UP authorities are indulging in malicious prosecution by registering fresh FIR whenever the petitioners obtain bail in some case. It is being done only to frustrate the benefit of bail, they say.

The petitioners further claim that the UP Gangsters Act has been invoked not only to harass them and their family members, but also to seize their properties. Apart from a violation of their Article 21 rights, they contend that the casual manner in which statutes like the National Security Act have been invoked, to keep them detained despite bail orders, amounts to abuse of process.

According to the allegations, even the petitioners' sureties have been threatened of false implication. The State instrumentalities have weaponized criminal law to harass and embroil them in false cases, the petitioners assert. In support of the contentions, reliance is placed inter-alia on the case of Alt-News founder Mohd. Zubair, where the Supreme Court cautioned against use of power of arrest as a "punitive tool".

The petition has been filed through AoR Paras Nath Singh.

Case Title: RAMEEZ NEMAT AND ANR. Versus STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH AND ORS., W.P.(Crl.) No. 225/2025 

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