Mumbai: The Aurangabad bench of Bombay high court has ordered an enquiry against a district magistrate after it received a petition from an extern claiming that the sub-divisional magistrate externed him from an entire district when he should have been externed only from the area where complaints were registered against him.
The court upheld the contention of the petitioner, setting aside the externment order, and ordered an enquiry against the sub-divisional magistrate. The petitioner was accused of three crimes since 2011, prompting the externment procedure.
A division bench of justices S.S. Shinde and K.K. Sonawane was hearing a criminal writ petition where Ravi Bhalerao, a businessman from Newasa taluka in Ahmednagar, challenged the externment notice issued by the sub-divisional magistrate. Mr Bhalerao questioned his externment from Ahmednagar district as well as the procedure followed by the magistrate to extern him.
Mr Bhalerao’s counsel argued that while his client had complaints registered against him at Newasa police station, which is a small part of the district, his externment from the entire district was not right. The counsel further claimed that the magistrate did not take in-camera statements of persons who would incriminate Mr Bhalerao to confirm the need to extern him.
Responding to Mr Bhalerao's allegations, the additional public prosecutor informed that as movement of Mr Bhalerao in and around Newasa was alarming people, the magistrate deemed it fit to extern him from the entire district.
