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Case Against Siddharth Varadarajan, Ismat Ara Over The Wire's Report On A Protestor's Death: Allahabad HC Issues Notice To Complainant
Sparsh Upadhyay
24 April 2022 10:13 PM IST
The Allahabad High Court has issued a notice to the complainant/informant [Rampur resident, Sanju Turaiha] in the case registered against The Wire's founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan and reporter Ismat Ara for tweeting a report on the death of a protester in New Delhi during the 2021 Republic Day incidents.Essentially, the bench of Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rajnish Kumar...
The Allahabad High Court has issued a notice to the complainant/informant [Rampur resident, Sanju Turaiha] in the case registered against The Wire's founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan and reporter Ismat Ara for tweeting a report on the death of a protester in New Delhi during the 2021 Republic Day incidents.
Essentially, the bench of Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rajnish Kumar issued this order on a plea filed by Siddharth Varadarajan and Ara seeking quashing of an FIR filed against them under IPC sections 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 505(2) (statements creating or promoting enmity between classes) for tweeting a story on Navreet Singh Dibdibiya (farm law protestor who died during the protest in Delhi) and thereby, misleading people.
Importantly, the order in the case was reserved after the final hearing in the case, and the bench was set to pronounce the order on March 22, 2021. However, during the course of preparation of the judgment, the Court realized that notices have not been issued to the informant in the case, and therefore, in such circumstances, the Court opined that the matter couldn't be decided finally.
In view of this, the Court decided to not deliver the order on March 22. However, when the counsel for the petitioners [Mehul Khare and Pragya Pandey] stated that since the offences alleged to have been committed by the petitioners are against the State, therefore, notices need not be issued to the informant/complainant.
In view of the importance of the issue, the Court asked the counsels to enlighten the Court on this aspect on the next date i.e., on March 31, 2021. Thereafter, on the next day, the Court, after hearing the counsels, finally decided to issue notice to the complainant and fixed 2nd of May 2022 as the date for hearing in the matter.
However, before parting with the order, the Court ordered that the interim protection from arrest granted earlier to the petitioners shall continue till the next date of listing. It may be noted that the petitioners were granted interim protection from arrest by the HC and it has extended this protection, time and again and this order is presently in operation.
Background of the Case
In the story (written by Ismat Ara) tweeted by the petitioners, it was claimed that the grandfather of the protestor, Hardeep Singh Dibdibiya had said that he was told by one of the doctors from the panel of doctors who conducted the post-mortem that the youth had died due to a bullet injury and since his (doctor's) hands were tied, he could not do anything.
However, later on, the Rampur police had tweeted a statement saying that the doctors involved in Navreet Singh's post-mortem had denied the fact that they had spoken "to the media or any other person" or had provided any such information as is being attributed to them in the media.
Further, an FIR was registered on the complaint of a Rampur resident, Sanju Turaiha. In his complaint, he had claimed that The Wire quoted the doctor to mislead people and this article had led to anger among the common people in Rampur and had given rise to tension.
It may be noted that the Supreme Court had, in September 2021, asked 'The Wire' and three of its reporters to approach the High Court for quashing the FIR registered against them over news reports published/written by them (including the instant article tweeted by Siddharth Varadarajan and Ara).
Read more about the case here: Supreme Court Grants 2 Months Protection To 'The Wire' Journalists From 3 UP Police FIRS; Asks Them To Move HC For Quashing
It may be noted that Allahabad High Court, while granting them the protection from coercive action, also took into account the September 8, 2021 order of the Supreme Court in which two months of protection was granted to the "The Wire" and three of its reporters from three FIRs registered against them by the Uttar Pradesh Police over some of the reports published by the portal.
However, the Supreme Court said that entertaining the matter directly will open a "Pandora's Box" and asked them to approach the High Court for quashing the FIRs.
"We are aware of fundamental rights and don't want freedom of the press to be muzzled", the presiding judge Justice L Nageswara Rao had said, while adding that the journalists should have approached the High Court first than coming to the Supreme Court directly.
Case title - Siddharth Varadarajan And Another v. State Of U.P. And 2 Others
