Ahmedabad: More than three years after a trial court issued an arrest warrant against BJP MLA Hardik Patel for his failure to attend hearings in a sedition case, the Gujarat high court nullified the trial court’s order on Friday.

A non-bailable warrant was issued against Patel due to his consistent absence from court hearings related to a sedition case stemming from the 2015 Patidar reservation protests during his tenure as the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) convenor.

The city sessions court issued this warrant twice, with the second issuance on February 7, 2020. The court’s decision was influenced by Patel’s initial arrest on January 18, 2020, which came with the condition that he must not skip court proceedings. However, Patel continued to be absent, primarily to avoid being arrested in connection with an FIR registered at Vastrapur police station, relating to the violence during the Maha Kranti protest rally organized by PAAS at the GMDC ground on August 25, 2015.

During the arguments, Patel’s counsel, Hardik Lokhandwala, cited a Supreme Court directive that had ordered all sedition trials to be put on hold as the SC is the hearing on the validity of Section 124A of the IPC. In light of this directive, the High Court determined that maintaining an arrest warrant in a trial that had already been stayed would serve no purpose. The state government did not oppose this decision, and Justice Sandeep Bhatt quashed the arrest warrant. DeshGujarat