Supreme Court Stays FIRs against Editors and writers of OpInida; issues notice to State of West Bengal
By; – S.A.Anjum Sadiq
Claims that the Government of West Bengal is imposing illegal censorship in the state by threatening, scuttling, and gagging honest media houses through misuse of state police
The Supreme Court on Friday issued an interim order staying the FIRs registered in West Bengal against online publication OpIndia’s Editors and writers including Nupur Sharma and Ajeet Bharti.
A vacation Bench Comprising of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and BR Gavai heard the plea filed by OpIndia editor Nupur Sharma and three others via video conferencing today.
Three FIRs were registered against petitioners in relation to different stories carried by the OpIndia platform, one of which is eight months old, the pea states. While various other mainstream news outlets also carried articles and news pieces on the concerned subjects, the police registered FIRs only against the petitioners thus the registration of FIRs amounts to brute of force, the plea states.
It was submitted that while circumventing the statutory framework created under the umbrella of Article l9(2) has rather chosen to hound down the Petitioners by registering multiple FIRs in order to bargain for deletion of news articles by putting the petitioner’s life and liberty at bait.OpIndia Editors and writers have selectively been targeted by the State of Wesr Bengal in this regard.
The Government of West Bengal and its authoritarian Kolkata Police is misusing FIRs and brute police-powers not only to intimidate journalists, but also, to intimidate, threaten, and embarrass the family members of such journalists including senior citizens of the family so as to seek deletion of media reports which bring to the public’s notice the actual state of affairs in the State of West Bengal during these difficult times.
The petitioners have also complained that the copy of the FIRs was not served on them, and that they were not uploaded in the website in accordance with the SC directives in Youth Bar Association case.
“ Such id he maladies of the respondent No.1- State that while they are using brute police power to gag and scuttle of freedom of press and are issuing notice under section 41A if the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 causing imminent threat to the life and personal liberty of the petitioners but the nevertheless, have despite repeated requests have not just refused to share the copy of the FIRs with the petitioners but has also failed to upload the copies of the FIRs on its official website in utter disregard to the direction issued by this Hon’ble Court.
The petitioners have also contended thatthe investigating officer have in an intimidating tone asked the them (Petitioners) to delete the article from the website failing which they will be arrested.
The decaying level of moral-fabric in the Government of West Bengal and its authoritarian regime and police is clear from the fact that the said threat was also made by the investigating officer to the 68 year father of the petitioner .
It is pertinent to note that there is a big sequence of events shows how the government of West Bengal through its police officials had succefully committed extortion.
As was clear from the said notices, these notices pertained to other FIR bearing Case No. 155 registered under Sections 153 /5O4/5O5 l /I2O-B of the IPC and Section 54 of Disaster Management Act at PS Hare Street.
Claiming to be victims of the extra-constitutional design of the State of West Bengal , the petitioners have approached the Supreme Court to quash FIRs.
The petitioners were represented by Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani along with Advocates Sandeep Kapur, Siya Chaudhry, and Madhulika Rai Sharma. The petition is filed through Advocate Ravi Sharma.
[Read Order]
[Read Petition]
