Barely three months after retirement, former Madhya Pradesh High Court judge Justice Rohit Arya joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday.
Justice Arya joined the ruling party at an event of the BJP State unit’s legal wing. A senior advocate in the Madhya Pradesh High Court since 2003, he was elevated as a judge in 2013 and was sworn-in as a permanent judge in 2015. Justice Arya retired on April 27.
While many of Justice Arya’s judgements were in the limelight over the years, he made headlines in 2021 for denying bail to comedians Munawar Faruqui and Nalin Yadav, arrested in Indore the same year for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.
Turning down their bail pleas, Justice Arya had observed, “It was the constitutional duty of every citizen of the country and the States to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood irrespective of religious, linguistic, section and regional diversities, and to value and preserve the rich heritage of the country’s composite culture. The State must endeavour to ensure that this ecosystem and sustenance of coexistence in our welfare society is not polluted by negative forces.”
While Mr. Faruqui later got bail from the Supreme Court, Mr. Yadav was granted bail by the High Court based on the apex court’s order.
In another ruling in 2020, Justice Arya granted bail to a man arrested in a sexual assault case with a condition that the accused would get a rakhi tied from the woman on Raksha Bandhan and present her a box of sweets. The order was later overturned by the Supreme Court which criticised the bail conditions and issued directions to lower courts regarding the handling of cases of crimes against women.
In March, West Bengal High Court judge Abhijeet Gangopadhyay resigned and joined the BJP. He later went on to win the Lok Sabha election from the State’s Tamluk constituency.
