No Relief For Pawan Khera After SC Refuses To Extend Transit Anticipatory Bail In Assam FIR

Supreme Court of India refused to extend Pawan Khera’s transit bail, flagged misleading documents, and said Assam courts must decide his plea independently.

No Relief For Pawan Khera After SC Refuses To Extend Transit Anticipatory Bail In Assam FIR

Source : PTI

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Key points generated by AI, verified by newsroom

• Supreme Court rejected Pawan Khera's bail extension plea.
• Court noted Khera filed misleading documents for his plea.

The Supreme Court rejected Congress leader Pawan Khera’s plea seeking to extend transit anticipatory bail granted to him earlier by the Telangana High Court till Tuesday on the ground of enabling him approach any jurisdictional court in Assam in the case where Khera is alleged to have made false allegations against the wife of Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma.

The Court also pulled up Khera for filing wrong documents (Aadhaar card) to mislead the court. Khera's lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi sought protection till Tuesday, but the Court rejected the plea. 

A bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and Atul S Chandurkar clarified its earlier order staying the one-week transit anticipatory bail granted to Khera by the Telangana High Court, stating that the stay would not prejudice the jurisdictional court deciding his plea, ANI reported.

The Supreme Court emphasised that neither the High Court’s order granting relief nor its own order staying it should influence the Assam court hearing the matter. It directed that any anticipatory bail application must be decided independently on its merits, without being affected by prior orders.

The Court further noted that Khera is free to approach the appropriate court. If the court is not functioning, he may request the registry to act in accordance with the law. With these observations, the plea was disposed of.

On April 10, the High Court granted Khera a week’s transit anticipatory bail, with Justice K Sujana relying on Supreme Court precedents to hold that limited protection could be extended even though the case was registered in Assam.

The court observed that Khera had a reasonable apprehension of arrest, particularly in light of search-and-seizure operations carried out at his Delhi residence by Assam and Delhi Police.

The case stems from an April 4 press conference in which Khera alleged that the Chief Minister’s wife possessed passports from three countries and accused Himanta Biswa Sarma of involvement in illegal activities.