Punjab and Haryana HC quashes non-bailable warrant against golfer Sujjan Singh
Singh had moved the Punjab and Haryana HC challenging the July 29 order of the lower court, whereby his application moved for seeking exemption from personal appearance was dismissed and his presence was ordered to be procured through NBW
In some relief for Sujjan Singh, a former international golfer, the Punjab and Haryana high court has quashed the non-bailable warrant (NBW) issued by a lower court against him in connection with a domestic violence case filed by his wife Irina Brar, a former India number 1 golfer, in 2018.
Singh had moved the high court challenging the July 29 order of the lower court, whereby his application moved for seeking exemption from personal appearance was dismissed and his presence was ordered to be procured through NBW. In pursuance to these order, a look-out circular was issued against Singh.
However, the high court bench of justice Meenakshi Mehta, on September 6, said, “The order passed by trial court is not legally sustainable and serves to be quashed.”
On July 29, the court of judicial magistrate first class Mayank Marwaha had taken up Singh’s application, seeking exemption from personal appearance, as he was currently working as a golf coach in Dubai, and was unable to get leave to travel to India and attend court.
However, the court cancelled his anticipatory bail, granted by the high court on August 25, 2020, on the grounds that Singh travelled abroad without court’s permission.
Bail bonds and surety bonds previously submitted by Singh were forfeited and NBW was issued to secure his presence in court on September 8 for violation of the bail condition.
In May this year, the Supreme Court had reiterated that Singh did not have unqualified right to travel abroad without prior intimation to the court.
Singh was booked under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 498-A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) of the Indian Penal Code in January 2020, 14 months after Irina Brar filed a complaint in November 2018. The court had framed charges against Singh on April 11, 2023.
Married in November 2010, the couple has a daughter, born in 2012. Brar, who dominated the Indian women’s golfing circuit for about a decade till 2008 when back-related issues forced her to quit, had alleged emotional, physical and financial abuse, saying she and her daughter had been driven out of her husband’s home without the basic provisions of food and clothing.