Judiciary Can't Be Threatened By Misdirected Individuals: Patna HC Directs FIR Registration Against Advocate Accused Of Abusing Judges

The Patna High Court on Wednesday ordered the registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against an Advocate, who has been accused of abusing the Judges of the Supreme Court including the former Chief Justice of India, Patna High Court Judges as well as the Union Law Minister and other dignitaries.

Dealing with the issues, the Bench of Justice Sandeep Kumar also rapped the social media platforms for their failure to report the abuse posted against judges and other dignitaries to the police.

Essentially, the Court was dealing with a very disturbing matter of a lawyer, Dinesh who has been accused of abusing the judges and other high dignitaries on various social media platforms.

At the outset, the Court noted that the Additional Director General, Economic Offences Unit (EOU), Government of Bihar, Patna, has already issued a direction for taking action against the persons who are making objectionable comments using foul languages against Government Ministers, Members of Parliament, Member of Legislative Assembly and other Government officials.

However, the Court further observed that to date EOU has failed to take any action against the person/persons making objectionable comments and posts on various social media platforms against the then CJI, SC Judges, Patna HC Judges including Ex-Chief Justice of Patna HC and the then Union Law Minister.

In view of this, the Court reminded the EOU that they are duty-bound to take suitable action against such persons. The Court was also of the view that the Social media platforms too failed in their duty to report such type of objectionable materials being uploaded on their social sites/apps to the EOU.

Therefore, the Court directed the EOU to register an F.I.R., constitute an expert team and investigate various objectionable materials and the offences committed by Dinesh, Advocate and take suitable action under law against him and persons involved in posting such objectionable posts.

"This action should be taken forthwith as the judiciary cannot be threatened by a single misdirected individual. The EOU will also investigate the involvement of other persons in this illegal activity," the Court added.

The Court has called for the report on December 17, 2021, coupled with an affidavit sworn by the A.D.G. himself and he will also be personally present before this Court. The Court has also appointed Advocate Manu Tripurari as Amicus Curaie in this case.

Apart from this, the Court has directed to add Economic Offices Unit (EOU), Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Whatsup, Messenger, Meta as opposite parties to this application.

It may be noted that in this very matter, the Patna High Court recently said that criminals who are involved in cybercrime should be caught and the cases should be solved, and that the general public should be educated so that they do not fall victim to cybercrime.

Case title - Shiv Kumar v. The State of Bihar and others

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