Retired Madhya Pradesh High Court judge Rohit Arya joins BJP
Justice (Retd) Arya has made news for controversial decisions such as asking a man accused of sexual assault of getting a rakhi tied by the victim as his bail condition
Another former high court judge has dived into politics by joining the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP). Justice Rohit Arya, who was serving as a judge in the Madhya Pradesh High Court until his retirement three months ago, joined the saffron party in Bhopal on Saturday (July 13) in the presence of the party’s Madhya Pradesh chief Raghavendra Sharma at the state BJP office.
Only a few months ago, former Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the Calcutta High Court made news in March by quitting the judiciary to join the BJP. He is now a Lok Sabha member from West Bengal’s Tamluk constituency.
Controversial decisions
Justice (Retd) Arya was in the news in 2021 for denying bail to comedians Munawar Faruqui and Nalin Yadav, who were accused of hurting religious sentiments. Faruqui later got bail from the Supreme Court, which set aside the high court order, while Yadav secured bail from the Indore Bench of the high court.
In 2020, too, Justice (Retd) Arya made news by imposing a strange bail condition on a man accused of outraging the modesty of a woman. He told the accused to get a “rakhi” tied by the complainant as his bail condition. The accused and his wife were directed by him to visit the complainant’s house on Raksha Bandhan with a “rakhi” and sweets so that now he would be her “rakhi brother” and have to protect her forever.
In this case, too, the Supreme Court set aside the high court’s order and strongly criticised the so-called bail conditions. The apex court also issued a series of directives for lower courts to follow when hearing bail petitions in cases of crimes against women.
Who is Justice (Retd) Arya?
Justice (Retd) Arya was born in 1962. He enrolled as an advocate in 1984 and became a senior advocate at the Madhya Pradesh High Court in 2003.
He mostly practised civil, commercial, administrative, service, labour, and tax laws and arbitration. His clients included the Centre, SBI, BSNL, Employees’ State Insurance Corporation, and the Income Tax Department.
He became a high court judge in 2013 and was sworn in as permanent Judge in 2015. He retired on April 27 this year.