Over the past week anti-election activist Thawatchai Promchan was acquitted of charges that he and his supporters were behind the disruption that led to the cancellation of an advance election last year.
The advance voting was to take place at Sri Iam Temple in Bangkok on Jan 26 before the actual general election day on Feb 2 which was called by the embattled Yingluck Shinawatra government in an effort to defuse anti-government protests.
Blockades of polling booths did not only happen in Bangkok but also in other parts of the country. Protesters believed if the election went on, the Pheu Thai Party would be voted back in.
On election day, anti-government protesters succeeded in stopping the voting in many constituencies because voters could not register.
In March, the Constitutional Court annulled the Feb 2 general election. Since nationwide voting failed to take place on that day, the election ended up being "unconstitutional" and thus had to be annulled, the court ruled.
Amid fierce political divisions, the ruling delighted one camp and incensed the other. It is the same story with the recent court ruling on Mr Thawatchai's role in the blockade of advance voting at Wat Sri-iam.
Mr Thawatchai was charged for leading supporters of the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) to block the poll station which prevented voters from casting their votes.
He was acquitted for lack of hard evidence that he actually took part in the blockade. In addition, the decision to call off the advance election was made by election officials.
In July this year, the court also dropped charges against PDRC demonstrators for their role in blocking distribution of ballot papers by the Din Daeng district office to other polling stations.
As a result, as many as 175 polling stations were not able to open on Feb 2, 2014 because they did not have the ballot papers.
The charge was dismissed because there was not sufficient evidence to show that the demonstrators used padlocks to barricade the gates of the district office as alleged.
Both court rulings brought back fresh memories of a very chaotic time in Thai politics when the anti- and pro-Thaksin camps violently clashed through the anti- and pro-election movements.
They also renewed accusations of partisanship in the judiciary.
Legally, anti-election protesters may get away with their antics due to a lack of hard evidence. But I don't think their disruptive actions can be justified.
Yes, the PDRC was protesting lawfully. But certain actions such as blocking other citizens from exercising their rights are not acceptable in any democratic society and should not be allowed to set precedents here.
Someone, somewhere was responsible for what happened. It is the job of police to find out who should be prosecuted.
It is also necessary for police to collect sufficient evidence.
In normal cases it is the leaders who are usually charged. And in this case Mr Thawatchai was the leader of a group that had joined up with the PDRC protest movement, and his group was the one that blocked the entrance to Wat Sri-Iam in Prawet district on Jan 26, 2014. That is why he was charged.
Forcefully stripping the basic rights of democracy is never an acceptable thing anywhere in the world.
Such actions are punishable in every democratic society and that should be the case in Thailand as well.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's government has been accused of a witch-hunt in its approach to the Pheu Thai Party and its support base of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship. That the supporters of Pheu Thai's arch-enemy, the PDRC, are legally spared has inevitably created widespread political resentment.
For a society to live in peace and harmony as Gen Prayut wants, it is necessary for the government, the bureaucracy, and the judiciary to work in tandem to be equally fair to all segments of society.
Every effort must be made to avoid creating a sense of injustice. Allowing perceived injustice to deepen is not going to get Thai society back on its feet with peace and harmony no matter how much one tries.
Umesh Pandey is editor of Asia Focus, Bangkok Post.