Some news items, which caught my eye, and would like to share with you all :
1 Yesterday India officially crossed the 8 million Covid cases even as the spread of virus is definitely slowing down. The last million cases took 18 days as against the previous million cases which took only 13 days. With drop in number of cases fatalities too have slowed down.
2 Yesterday an interesting development happened in Supreme Court, when bench of justices DY Chandrachud and Indira Banerjee gave a ruling in a matter where a Delhi woman was summoned by the Kolkata police for an objectionable Facebook post. The woman had shared a crowded Raja Bazar area scene and questioned the Mamta Banerjee govt’s seriousness to enforce lockdown. The SC bench said Ordinary citizens can not be harassed for criticising the govt.
Finding the post, which was not meant to harm anybody,to be converted into a first information report (FIR), the bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Indira Banerjee shuddered to think that if police were to issue summons to ordinary citizens in this manner, it will set a dangerous trend forcing Courts to step in and protect the constitutionally guarded fundamental right of free speech under Article 19(1)(a).
The bench remarked, “If some person writes something against the Government in some country, are you (state) going to make him appear, say in Kolkata or Chandigarh or Manipur and tell him that now we will teach you a lesson. This is a dangerous proposition. Let this remain a free country.”
The apex court stayed the High Court order of September 29 asking her to appear in Kolkata while asking the petitioner to cooperate with the investigation. The investigating officer (I.O) was granted liberty to question the petitioner through video conferencing or even come to Delhi for confronting facts.
What prompted such harsh words from the top court was a petition filed by one Roshni Biswas, a resident of Delhi, who faced a FIR registered at Ballygunj police station on May 13 for an objectionable post attributed to her on a Facebook page. The FIR was registered for offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) involving promoting enmity between religious groups (Section 153A), outraging religious feelings (Section 295A), defamation (Section 500), breach of peace (Section 504), public mischief (Section 505) and other related provisions under the Information Technology Act and Disaster Management Act.
Roshni got a stay of arrest from Calcutta High Court on 5th June 2020 on an undertaking that she will appear after lockdown is lifted, as Kolkata police wanted her to come to Kolkata for questioning. She had also mentioned to HC to quash the FIR, and this petition was still pending, but the HC directed Roshni to appear on 29th September 2020 to appear before police. She had challenged this order in SC.
Her advocate said in the SC “ where is cognisable offence made out, for objectionable post, and Kolkata police wants my client to travel to Kolkata so that they can terrorise her.”
What was attributed to her by the police were two posts on a Facebook page where she said, “The lockdown is not being followed at Rajabazar….During lockdown, thousands of people have come together and raising concerns as to whether the State administration would do something about it.” The FIR stated that the posts implied “the State administration was going soft on the violation of the lock down at Rajabazar as the area is predominantly inhabited by a particular community.” This area has a majority of Muslim population.
On a bare reading of the FIR, the bench remarked, “We will be the first institution in this country to tell citizens that if they have done wrong, they must answer to the law but not for this. We have to be here to ensure ordinary citizens are not harassed like this…We have strong reservations against people being called from one state to another just because they have criticised the government.” In the end SC issued notice on the petition and granted four weeks to West Bengal govt to respond.
Now a days it has become a habit/fashion of many political parties heading the state govts, to harass citizens of the country. You all must be remembering what happened to Arnab Goswami when he spoke against Sonia Gandhi,in Congress ruled states, many FIR were filed against Arnab for hurting their sentiments. That time also Arnab had to approach SC to get the relief, do not forget that Arnab is being still harassed by Maharashtra govt led by Shivsena.. Maharashtra govt again behaved in same away against Kangana Ranaut when she spoke against the function of the state govt.
Yesterday’s proceedings in SC is a welcome step in right direction where citizen’s rights are being protected.
3 Now coming to Kangana Ranaut case, friends do you have any idea how much Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) spent as legal fees which was paid to the lawyers to represent BMC in courts, in this case. The amount is Rs 82 lakhs, which BMC spent in legal charges for represent them in Kangana Ranaut’s bungalow demolition incident before Bombay HC. Now just to satisfy the political ego of the ruling party, the BMC spent public money to hire a senior counsel instead of engaging senor advocates who are on the BMC panel.
Before the BMC action of demolition of some portion her bungalow, there was war of words between Shivsena politicians and Kangana on Sushant Singh Rajput’s alleged suicide case. She alleged that the BMC acted against her bungalow on the instructions of the ruling party, the Shivsena.
Now you can see from Arnab and Kangana’s cases that how vindictive Maharashtra govt has become. This is the case with celebrities, now what must be happening to common citizens, if they speak against this govt in social media or any other platform.
So with yesterday’s ruling by SC, these political parties should know that they can not use the law for personal vendetta, even when some one critics the working of govt.
Waiting for your views/comments/feed backs.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
29th October 2020.