The Supreme Court on Wednesday (December 3) refused to quash the Arms Act case pending against former Lok Sabha MP Bal Kumar Patel.

A Bench comprising Justices Sanjay Karol and N Kotiswar Singh upheld the Allahabad High Court's decision, declining to quash the proceedings, as the mandatory prior permission from the High Court for withdrawal of cases involving MPs/MLAs, as per the Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay v. Union of India judgment, had not been sought or obtained by the State.

The core legal issue stemmed from a Government Order (GO) dated August 6, 2014, by the Uttar Pradesh government, which decided to withdraw three Arms Act cases against the appellant "in public interest as well as in the interest of justice." The Governor granted permission to file the withdrawal application.

How

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