UP govt seems determined to use Goonda Act as tool of harassment: Allahabad HC

The Allahabad High Court has criticized the Uttar Pradesh government for its alleged misuse of the Goonda Act, stating that the state government seems determined to use the law as a means of harassment. Justice Subhash Vidyarthi of the Lucknow bench observed that the Goonda Act is a powerful legislation that must be used cautiously, only in clear cases for maintaining public order.

The court quashed an order declaring a person named Zahid Ali a goonda and ordering his expulsion from the district for six months. The Goonda Act was invoked by the Gonda district magistrate under Section 3, relying on two criminal cases and a beat information report. However, the court found that one of the criminal cases had already been acquitted in 2010 and that there was a significant gap of nearly six years between the 2020 criminal case and the 2026 order declaring Ali a goonda.

The court also rejected the police report mentioning the acquitted case as a valid basis for invoking the Goonda Act, stating that it reflected a failure to properly exercise discretion and that no rational nexus could be established between the two cases.