Allahabad High Court quashes criminal case against RWA office-bearers, flags misuse of RSS name

Flagging the abuse of criminal law and the misuse of the name of a ‘respected organisation’ such as the Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Allahabad High Court (HC) on Monday (February 9, 2026) quashed criminal proceedings initiated against office-bearers of a Resident Welfare Association (RWA) in Lucknow.

The matter pertains to an FIR lodged over a parking dispute in the “Celebrity Greens” housing society. The police had booked the RWA office bearers of the society on charges of extortion and criminal intimidation based on a complaint filed by a resident who described himself as a B.Tech graduate, entrepreneur and trustee of the Bhaurao Devras Trust, affiliated with the RSS.

The RWA office bearers approached the HC after a Lucknow court summoned them on the basis of a chargesheet filed under Sections 308(2), 351(2) and 352 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

Allowing an application filed by the secretary, president and caretaker of the society, the bench of justice Pankaj Bhatia noted that the society was a duly registered RWA constituted under the U.P. Apartment Act, adding the general body of the society had passed a board resolution, framing parking guidelines to avoid traffic obstruction and hence nothing was done illegally.

“With great powers come great responsibility. The Opposite Party No. 2 has clearly not gained responsibilities with the great powers that have come his way, as claimed by him. It will be open to the organisation of which the informant claims to be a member to see whether the browbeating of members of the common public is sanctioned in favour of the Opposite Party No. 2 owing to his office,” the court said.

The court also described the RSS as “a highly disciplined and respected cultural organisation’’, stating that its name had been maligned and its membership misused in the present case. “This Court is not well equipped to go any further with regard to the acts of Opposite Party No. 2 in misusing the name of a respected cultural organisation in the manner in which it has been done,” it added.