No Reference To Any Group(s) Of People In Article To Attract Offence U/S 153A IPC: SC Quashes FIR Against Parvatjan’s Director Shiv Prasad Semwal
|The Supreme Court quashed an FIR registered against Shiv Prasad Semwal, the director of 'Parvatjan,' in connection with a Facebook news post that was published in his e-newspaper.
The news article published in the e-newspaper allegedly portrayed the complainant as unlawfully occupying government land. The complainant further claimed that the publication aimed to incite breach of peace and and to tarnish his reputation.
Based on the alleged malicious news article, the complainant registered an FIR for offences punishable under Sections 153A, 500, 501, 504 read with Sections 34 and 120B IPC.
Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice Sandeep Mehta observed, “Upon careful perusal of the offending news article, reproduced (supra), it is crystal clear that there is no reference to any group or groups of people in the said article. The publication focuses totally on the complainant imputing that he had encroached upon public land where the foundation stone laying ceremony was proposed at the hands of Hon’ble Chief Minister of Uttarakhand.”
Advocate R K Mohit Gupta represented the appellant, while Advocate Rachna Gandhi appeared for the respondents.
The Uttarakhand High Court held that the accused was not liable to face prosecution for news article published as it was entirely based on a Facebook post of the journalist.
Similarly, upon examination of the contents of the news article, the Supreme Court also found no grounds to sustain the allegations made in the FIR.
The Court explained that the offending news article did not target any specific group or community, nor did it promote enmity or disharmony among different groups. Instead, it focused on the land dispute and the proposed foundation stone laying ceremony and hence lacked the foundational facts essential to constitute an offence under Section 153A IPC.
The Court was of the view that allowing the continuance of the proceedings against the appellant was “nothing but gross abuse of process of law because the allegations as set out in the FIR do not disclose necessary ingredients of any cognizable offence.”
Accordingly, the Supreme Court allowed the appeal.
Cause Title: Shiv Prasad Semwal v. State of Uttarakhand & Ors. (Neutral Citation: 2024 INSC 220)
Appearance:
Appellant: AOR Aditya Samaddar; Advocates R K Mohit Gupta, Karan Kumar G, Akshay S and Rahul Pratap
Respondents: AOR Jaswant Singh Rawat and Nidhi Jaswal; Advocates Rachna Gandhi, Kamlesh Pant, Ikshita Parihar, S.K. Gandhi and Amogh Bansal
Click here to read/download the Judgment