New Delhi: Noting that the accused was already convicted in one case for the same event, Delhi High Court has quashed two other FIRs against the then AAP MLA Kuldeep Kumar for organising a Tiranga Yatra in 2021 amid Covid-19 restrictions.Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma observed that three FIRs were registered at three different police stations in connection with the same event and any further conviction for violating the same prohibitory orders and Covid-19 protocols would be contrary to the constitutional guarantee against double jeopardy.Tiranga Yatra was taken out on Aug 15, 2021, under the then Kondli MLA. In its judgment on Aug 3, the court pointed out, “The allegations in all the three FIRs relate to the same procession, the same set of alleged acts, the same govt notifications and prohibitory orders having been violated, and the same alleged offence punishable under Section 188 of IPC, and thus, the ambit of all three FIRs being entirely same.”In Oct 2022, a trial court convicted Kumar under Section 188 (disobedience of order) of IPC and directed him to pay a fine of Rs 1,600. This case was registered at New Ashok Nagar police station.The former MLA argued that once criminal proceedings arising out of the same incident had ended in conviction, continuation of multiple prosecutions for the same offence was not permissible.Justice Sharma rejected the prosecution’s stand that every time the yatra entered the jurisdiction of a different police station, it constituted a fresh act of disobedience, giving rise to a separate offence. Merely because the procession passed through different jurisdictions or because the alleged violation of the prohibitory orders continued as the procession progressed, it couldn’t be said it was a case of “multiple independent transactions”, the high court said, quashing the FIRs registered at Kalyanpuri and Ghazipur police stations.