Supreme Court dismisses plea by BJP's Shahnawaz Hussain challenging direction to register FIR against him in rape case

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed BJP leader Shahnawaz's Hussain's SLP challenging a Delhi High Court order directing registration of a first information report (FIR) against him in connection with a rape complaint. [Syed Shahnawaz Hussain vs State of NCT of Delhi and anr].A division bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Dipankar Datta observed that Hussain had not been held guilty and that all the remedies under law were available to him. Hence, it dismissed the appeal. .The Supreme Court had in August stayed the Delhi High Court order to register an FIR against the BJP lawmaker.The bench had also stayed all pending proceedings before the trial court while reasoning that the case called for consideration.The protection was granted by the Court while hearing an appeal against an order that had noted that the police had a lot to explain for not having registered an FIR against Hussain on the receipt of a complaint sent to the Commissioner of Police that clearly disclosed the commission of a cognisable offence of rape after administration of a stupefying substance.The High Court was hearing a challenge to the order of a Special Judge who had upheld the orders of the Metropolitan Magistrate (MM) directing the registration of an FIR.The police had informed the MM that as per the inquiry, the allegations raised by the complainant were not substantiated. Despite this, following the decision of the Supreme Court in Lalita Kumari v Government of Uttar Pradesh, the MM passed an order directing the registration of FIR.The special judge subsequently upheld this decision. Hussain then moved the High Court, which had also refused relief.In the instant appeal before the Supreme Court, Hussain stated that order of the High Court will lead to his unblemished career and reputation being "irretrievably damaged."It was further argued that the complaint against Hussain was "false, frivolous and mala fide" and made with the intention to wreck vengeance. It was submitted that the complainant had earlier too defamed the BJP leader on social media platforms such as Facebook..Senior Advocates Mukul Rohtagi, Sidharth Luthra, and advocate Mohit Paul appeared for Hussain.Additional Solicitor General Jayant Sud appeared for the Delhi government.