A bench, headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, questioned Bains’ conduct in reportedly using his influence as an MLA, as it demanded a report from the state government on how criminal cases were foisted on the complainant following registration of the rape case against Bains.
The bench, which also comprised justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli, was hearing a petition by the MLA from Ludhiana’s Atam Nagar constituency for protection from arrest in the alleged rape case.
“Have you seen the conduct of your client? He is a two-time MLA and this is the way he behaves? He is a public servant and he starts registering cases against the lady,” the bench told senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who appeared for Bains.
The court then turned to Punjab’s advocate general DS Patwalia. “What is happening in your state? How many cases has he filed against the lady? He wants to keep on filing cases and you register everything. As a state, you cannot be a party to this kind of misuse of police machinery,” the bench told the state’s top law officer.
Patwalia, on his part, said that there were proceedings initiated against Bains but some of them have been stayed by the subordinate courts. The bench, however, asked Patwalia to gather all relevant information on how four cases came to be filed against the complainant and her family members and file a detailed affidavit.
At this point, Rohatgi submitted that his client has nothing to do with the registration of cases against the complainant. “She ran a fake job racket and those who were duped got these cases registered. I have nothing to do with it,” Rohatgi argued on behalf of Bains.
Advocate Gagan Gupta, who represented the complainant against Bains, requested the court to stay the proceedings in the cases registered against her and her family members until the state government comes clear on the issues raised.
Accepting this plea, the bench stayed all proceedings against the woman and her family members for two weeks.
On Bains, the court decided to wait for a detailed affidavit from the state government and extended protection from arrest to the MLA for another week.
On December 10, 2021, a trial court issued a non-bailable warrant against Bains after his repeated failure to appear before it as an accused in the rape case. Bains approached the Punjab and Haryana high court but to no avail. On December 21, the high court issued notices on his appeal but declined to stay the warrant, compelling him to approach the Supreme Court.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court granted Bains interim protection from arrest in view of his lawyer’s submission that the legislator should be permitted to file his nomination papers for the upcoming assembly elections in Punjab. Polling is set to take place in the state on February 20. The last date of filing nominations was February 1.
The bench was initially inclined to protect Bains from arrest till February 23 keeping in view a similar order passed by it on Monday in favour of Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia. Majithia was protected from arrest till February 23 in an alleged drugs case.
However, it decided to go through the documents that the complainant in the case, a 44-year-old woman, sought to adduce before the court to oppose the argument that the action against the MLA was linked to the election.
Gupta, appearing for the complainant, submitted that non-bailable warrants have been issued against Bains several times and that criminal cases were foisted on her family members after she approached a trial court in 2020 for registration of a criminal case against the MLA.
