The court's decision was influenced by the interpretation of the legal provision under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code and the relevance of the order cited by the petitioner in seeking the quashing of the FIR.

JUDGMENT

1. Heard Mr. Rohan Desai for the Petitioner and Mr. G. Nagvenkar, learned Additional Public Prosecutor for the State.

2. The Petitioner seeks the following reliefs in this Petition :-

a) That this Hon'ble Court be pleased to issue a Writ of Certiorari or a Writ in the nature of Certiorari or any other appropriate Writ, Order or Direction quashing and setting aside the FIR dated 09/05/2020 registered by the Respondent No. 2 under Sections 124 -(A) R/w Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

b) For an Ad-Interim Stay over the proceedings i.e. issuance of the Look Out Circular as well as Warrant of Arrest against the Petitioner by the Respondent No-2 against the Petitioner.

3. Mr. Rohan Desai relies on an order made by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in S.G. Vombatkere vs. Union of India, 2022 SCC OnLine SC 609. Based on this order, he submits that there is now a direction to keep all pending cases in abeyance. Further, the Centre/Sates have been urged not to register fresh cases till Section 124A is reviewed by the Central Government.

4. We have considered the submissions made by Mr. Desai. Based on the said submissions, we do not think that any case is made out for quashing the FIR dated 9th May 2020 based on the order cited by him. The Hon'ble Supreme Court has not held in the said order that all FIRs under Section 124A should be quashed at this stage itself.

5. Therefore, based only on the order cited, no relief can be granted in terms of prayer clause (a) of the Petition.

6. Prayer clause (b) is in the nature of an interim or ad interim relief. Since the main prayer cannot be granted, we are afraid that it would not be appropriate for us to consider the prayer for interim relief.

7. Therefore, we dismiss this Petition. However, we grant the Petitioner liberty to take such steps as may be advised to seek the redressal on the issue of Look Out Circular or the arrest warrant.

8. With the above liberty, we dismiss this Petition. There shall be no order for costs.