New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted protection from coercive action to a cartoonist accused of sharing online objectionable content on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and RSS workers. The top court also expressed anguish over increasing objectionable posts on social media and underscored the need to pass a judicial order to curb the malaise. "Log kisi ko bhi, kuch bhi keh dete hain (People say anything to anyone)'," a bench comprising justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Aravind Kumar said, “we will have to do something about it.” The bench, in the meantime, protected cartoonist Hemant Malviya against coercive state action in view of the FIR in Madhya Pradesh after his counsel Vrinda Grover assured an apology was tendered.
The bench, however, cautioned if the cartoonist continued to post or share any offensive posts on social media, the state was free to take action against him under law. “The respondent state (Madhya Pradesh) will be at liberty to proceed as per law if the petitioner puts any offensive post on social media,” the bench ordered after additional solicitor general K M Natraj, appearing for the state government, referred to some other posts of Malviya on X against judiciary as well. “It will open Pandora's box,” Grover retaliated, opposing the submission of the law officer. Grover earlier in the hearing said, “It is a case of poor and bad language. I ask myself whether this is criminal or illegal language.” The bench then remarked, “The issue is the manner in which you said something. What you have done is a clear offence.” The top court referred to one of his tweets and said it could “attract all kinds of penal provisions”. The bench, in the meantime, did not accede to the cartoonist's plea to delete his social media posts and posted the hearing in August.
Malviya challenged in the apex court a Madhya Pradesh High Court order passed on July 3 refusing to grant him anticipatory bail. He was booked by Lasudiya police station in Indore in May on a complaint filed by lawyer and RSS worker Vinay Joshi. Malviya hurt religious sentiments of Hindus and disturbed communal harmony by uploading objectionable material on social media, Joshi alleged. It was argued that the issue related to a cartoon made in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic. "It may be unpalatable. Let me say it is in poor taste. Let me go to that extent. But is it an offence? My lords have said, it can be offensive but it is not an offence. I am simply in law. I am not trying to justify anything," Grover said on Monday. Grover agreed to delete the alleged offensive post. "Whatever we may do with this case, but this is definitely the case that the freedom of speech and expression is being abused," Justice Dhulia then observed. The FIR mentioned various "objectionable" posts, including allegedly inappropriate comments on Lord Shiva as well as cartoons, videos, photographs and comments regarding Modi, RSS workers and others.
Malviya's lawyer in the high court contended that he only posted a cartoon, but he could not be held responsible for the comments posted on it by other Facebook users. The FIR accused him of posting indecent and objectionable material with the intention of hurting religious sentiments of Hindus and tarnishing the RSS's image. The police invoked Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Sections 196 (acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony between different communities), 299 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings) and 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) as well as section 67-A (publishing or transmitting in electronic form any sexually explicit material) of the Information Technology Act against the accused.