Former Madhya Pradesh High Court judge Justice Rohit Arya joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) around three months after his retirement from the judiciary.
Justice Arya had served as a judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court from September 2013 to April 2024, when he retired.
According to a report by IBC24, Arya received his BJP membership from Madhya Pradesh BJP chief Dr. Raghavendra Sharma in a program held at the BJP state office in Bhopal.
Served in important positions
Prior to his judicial appointment, he had a long career as a practising lawyer, serving as a senior panel counsel for the state government in the Supreme Court and as a standing counsel for various government departments and public sector entities.
Justice Rohit Arya was born on April 28, 1962, and enrolled as an advocate in August 1984. He was designated as a Senior Advocate by the High Court of Madhya Pradesh on August 26, 2003.
Justice Arya’s major practice areas included civil law, commercial law (including corporate fiduciary matters), arbitration (both international and domestic), administrative law, service law, labour law, and tax law. He represented various clients such as the Central Government, the State Bank of India, the Telecom Department, BSNL, the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation, and the Income Tax Department.
Justice Arya was elevated as a Judge of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh on September 12, 2013, and was made a permanent Judge on March 26, 2015. He retired from the bench on April 27, 2024.
Denied bail to comedians Munawar Faruqui, Nalin Yadav
In 2021, Justice Arya denied bail to comedians Munawar Faruqui and Nalin Yadav, who were accused of hurting religious sentiments.
Justice Arya observed that the “evidence/material collected so far, suggest that in an organized public show under the garb of standup comedy at a public place on commercial lines, prima facie; scurrilous, disparaging utterances, outraging religious feelings of a class of citizens of India with deliberate intendment, were made by the applicants.”
He also emphasized the constitutional duty of every citizen to promote harmony and the spirit of linguistic, regional or sectional diversities, and to value and preserve the rich heritage of India’s composite culture.
The Supreme Court later granted bail to Munawar Faruqui after setting aside the order of the High Court.
The ‘Rakhi’ judgement
The Madhya Pradesh High Court, through Justice Rohit Arya, infamously granted bail to a man accused of outraging the modesty of a woman in 2020, on the condition that he and his wife visit the complainant’s house on Raksha Bandhan and request her to tie a Rakhi (sacred thread) on his wrist.
The court ordered the bail applicant to make a promise that he would protect the complainant to the best of his ability for all times to come.
Additionally, the applicant was directed to pay Rs. 11,000 to the complainant as a customary ritual and Rs. 5,000 to her son for purchasing clothes and sweets.
This controversial bail condition, which essentially forced the complainant to establish a symbolic brother-sister relationship with her alleged molester, was widely criticized for being insensitive and undermining the gravity of the alleged offence.
