New Delhi, Oct 14 (PTI) A court here has dismissed a complaint seeking directions to the police to register an FIR against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and two other AAP leaders, alleging that a party MLA had contested the last assembly polls by furnishing a fake caste certificate.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 on complainant Dal Chand Kapil and said it cannot direct the police to register an FIR as there is no disclosure of a cognisable offence.

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The complainant had alleged that AAP MLA Prakash Jarwal had contested the 2020 legislative assembly elections from the reserved Deoli assembly constituency on the basis of a fake Schedule Caste certificate.

According to the complainant, Jarwal belonged to Bairwa caste, which is a Scheduled Caste in Rajasthan, but listed in the Other Backward Castes (OBC) in Delhi.

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To this, the court cited the directions issued by the social justice ministry in February 2018, according to which people belonging to Schedules Castes will not lose their caste status on migration to another state or a Union territory.

According to the ministry, Scheduled Castes certificate to such individuals will be issued irrespective of the caste's classification in the state or the Union territory the person has migrated to, the court said.

"Thus, the court could not take a prima facie view that the SC certificate issued to Jarwal was forged or was prepared by furnishing false information," it said.

Further, the court said no offences punishable under the Indian Penal Code or under the Scheduled Castes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, were made out.

"The circumstances put forth in the present complaint do not disclose the commission of any cognisable offence and there are no grounds to direct registration of FIR or to take cognisance," Additional Sessions Judge Vrinda Kumari said in a recent order.

The judge also directed the complainant to pay a fine of Rs 1,000 to the Delhi State Legal Services Authority.

The court noted that the issue of validity of Jarwal's election from a seat reserved for an SC candidate in Delhi was also the subject matter of a poll petition pending before the Delhi High Court.

"The present case is clearly a subject matter of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, recourse to which has already been taken by the complainant in 2020 itself (by filing the Election Petition in the high court)," the court said.

"The attempt of the complainant to bring the subject matter of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, within the ambit of the SC and ST Act, 1989, is an abuse of process,” the court added.

Besides Kejriwal and Jarwal, the complainant had also sought FIR against another leader Gopal Rai.

Kejriwal and Rai were "jointly and severally liable for the conspiracy of reducing Scheduled Castes representation in the Delhi Assembly" by giving a ticket to Jarwal, the complaint read.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)