A special court here on Thursday rejected a plea by the Uttar Pradesh government to withdraw a case filed against BJP MLA Umesh Malik, citing the Supreme Court’s order that no prosecution against an MP or an MLA would be dropped without the permission of the high courts.

Malik, the MLA of Budhana in Muzaffarnagar district, surrendered in the court on Thursday and sought recall of the non-bailable warrant issued against him.

Police had registered a case against several people, including the MLA, under IPC Sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon) and 149 (unlawful assembly), among others, following a demonstration outside a meat factory off Jansath road in the district in 2006.

The state had sought to withdraw the case on February 22.

On the basis of the apex court’s order, Judge Gopal Upadhyay rejected the Uttar Pradesh government’s application to withdraw the case filed against Malik.

As many as 77 cases related to the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots have been withdrawn by the Yogi Adityanath government, the Supreme Court had been informed on Wednesday.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court had held that state prosecutors cannot withdraw prosecution against lawmakers under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) without prior sanction from high courts.

The apex court’s order assumed significance in view of the fact, highlighted by an amicus curiae on the basis of news reports, that states like Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra and Karnataka have sought to withdraw criminal cases against politicians by using Section 321 of the CrPC that empowers prosecutors to withdraw cases.