J&K&L High Court Refuses To Quash FIR Against Kashmir Walla Editors

Dismissing a petition filed by the editors of a Valley-based news portal The Kashmir Walla for quashing of an FIR registered against them last year, the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court said the case requires an investigation to find out whether the offences have been committed or not.

Justice Vinod Chatterji Koul in the judgment pronounced on November 17 said:

"Since the allegations contained in the complaint on the basis of which the FIR in question has been registered allege commission of offences punishable under Section 153, 505 IPC, which requires to be investigated by the police and during the investigation, the defence which may be available to the petitioners can be taken and after the investigation is concluded, the police has to find out whether or not offences for which the FIR has been registered are made out or not."

An FIR was registered at Imam Sahib Police Station in south Kashmir's Shopian district last year on the complaint made by Company Commander D-Coy 44 1-Rashtriya Rifles Camp alleging that news websites Kashmiryat and The Kashmir Walla published an article claiming that army forced the school authorities of Siraj-ul-Uloom to celebrate Republic parade.

The spreading of "such kind of fake news" is bound to cause serious concern for the security and can create law and order situation, the Army had said in the police complaint. The investigation revealed that the articles was written by Mir Junaid of Kashmiryat and Yashraj Sharma of The Kashmir Walla, according to the police. The Chairman of Siraj-ul-Uloom school is stated to have told the police that the allegation against the army was baseless. The investigation in the case is underway, as per the police.

The Kashmir Walla's editors Fahad Shah and Yashraj Sharma in March this year had filed the petition challenging the registration of FIR. The plea invoked inherent powers of the high court under Section 482 CrPC to seek quashing of the case. 

Justice Koul said the scope of Section 482 CrPC is well defined and inherent powers could be exercised by the High Court to give effect to an order under the Code, to prevent abuse of the process of court and to otherwise secure the ends of justice.

"However, in exercise of such powers, it is not permissible for the High Court to appreciate the evidence as it can only evaluate material documents on record to the extent of its prima facie satisfaction about existence of sufficient ground for proceedings against accused and the court cannot look into materials, acceptability of which is essentially a matter for trial," said the bench.

The court said the petition is without any merit and is accordingly dismissed.

Title: Shah Fahad Peerzada and another vs UT of JK and others

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (JKL) 219

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