The Bombay High Court on Wednesday cancelled an FIR which was against a woman, for her tweet on PM Modi, Maharashtra CM and his son, Uddhav Thackeray and Aditya Thackeray. High Court denied the FIR by saying that, “by no stretch of imagination it can be said that the posted tweet created hatred or enmity between the two groups of communities.”
The plea was filed by Ms. Sunaina Holey, a resident of Navi Mumbai. She recently had tweeted about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Maharashtra CM and his son on COVID-19 and migrant movement. The bench who were hearing this plea said, “Assuming that the said tweet is an extreme view in retaliation for the expression by a person in the crowd who was blaming the prime minister of India, the said tweet is yet to be judged from the mind of a strong prudent person.”
The special division bench of justices SS Shinde and MS Karnik took the hearing and cancelled the FIR. The bench recorded, “The approach in registering the FIR for the comments made on the twitter feed by Ms Holey on the apprehension that the same may lead to promoting hatred or enmity between different groups on the ground of religion or that she has committed an act which is prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between different religious groups, is too far-fetched and remote.”
The 62-page-judgment passed on stated that, “The tweet in question, if judged on the basis of what a reasonable and strong minded person will think of it, leaves little manner of doubt in our mind that the same is only expressing a hostile point of view. The Police’s approach towards the tweet is hypersensitive and over cautious thereby trying to scent danger in the hostile point of view expressed by Ms. Holey.”
Ms. Holey was finally charged under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language etc and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 500 (punishment for defamation) and 505 2 (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes) of the Indian Penal Code, as per the bench’s orders.
The bench in conclusion to the hearing said that, “Though the police machinery had ample opportunity to investigate, nothing has been placed on record to indicate that the tweet led to any such disturbance.”
