Advocate Prashant Umrao Moves SC Against Condition Imposed By Madras HC While Granting Anticipatory Bail, SC To Hear Plea Tomorrow

Advocate Prashant Kumar Umrao has approached the Supreme Court challenging the condition imposed by the Madras High Court while granting anticipatory bail to him after he was booked for allegedly spreading false information on Twitter claiming attacks on migrant workers from Bihar in Tamil Nadu.

The plea was mentioned today before the Bench of Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala by Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra. He told the Court that the condition requiring signing every day for 15 days is onerous. "FIRs were registered in different parts of the state for a tweet that I deleted", he told the Court. The Court then agreed to list the matter tomorrow. 

Advocate Prashant Umrao has challenged the Condition whereby the High Court has directed him to “report before the Police, daily at 10:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., for a period of 15 days and thereafter, as and when required for interrogation.”

Prashant Kumar Umrao has stated that he is ready and willing to comply with the impugned order as well as all the conditions imposed by High Court except the aforesaid condition which he has claimed to be unreasonable and onerous.

He submitted that the High Court has exceeded its jurisdiction in imposing arbitrary conditions which are highly onerous and unreasonable. “It is submitted that from the perusal of the impugned order, it is clear that the Hon’ble Court has exceeded its jurisdiction in imposing such arbitrary conditions which are highly onerous and unreasonable.”, the plea read.

The plea also states that the condition imposed by the High Court is unreasonable and unjustified in view of the fact and circumstances of the present case and the punishment provided for the same offence.

It is contented in the plea that by imposing such a condition on the accused of marking his presence at the police station the High Court has not acted prudently as the same condition is not possible for the petitioner to follow.

"It is submitted that the Hon’ble High Court has failed to exercise its power judiciously and in a compassionate manner. The petitioner is an advocate in the Supreme Court of India who has to attend the court everyday in order to 25 represent his case. That by imposing such a condition on the accused of marking his presence at the police station at Thoothukudi Police Station, Tamil Nadu, and the Hon’ble High Court has not acted prudently as the same condition is not possible for the petitioner to follow", the plea says.

The petitioner-Umrao has prayed to grant ad-interim ex-parte stay of the condition of the impugned order of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court until the disposal of the Special Leave Petition.

Prashant Kumar Umrao has been accused of uploading false content on his Twitter intentionally to trigger linguistic chauvinism, instigating violence between Hindi-speaking Bihar people and other State people versus Tamil people.

The High Court had remarked that Prashant Kumar Umrao being an advocate must have some responsibility towards the society.

The FIR was registered against Umrao under sections 153 (provocation with intent to cause riot), 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence), 504 (provoking breach of peace) and 505(public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

Earlier, the Delhi High Court had granted transit anticipatory bail to him till March 20.

Cause Title- Prashant Umrao @ Prashant Kumar Umrao v. The Inspector of Police