Allahabad HC quashes FIR against man over ‘jungleraj in UP’ tweet

The Allahabad High Court has quashed an FIR against a person who had allegedly tweeted that "Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has transformed the state into a jungleraj in which no law and order prevails".

Hearing a writ petition filed by Yashwant Singh against whom the FIR was lodged at Bhognipur police station in Rama Bai Nagar district, a bench of Justice Pankaj Naqvi and Justice Vivek Agarwal observed, "Expressing dissent on law-and-order situation in the state is a hallmark of a constitutional liberal democracy like ours, constitutionally protected under Article 19 of the Constitution."

"We after analysing the provisions under section 66-D of IT Act, qua allegation made in the FIR, do not find even remotely a commission of offence under the said section. In so far section 500 IPC is concerned, same is also not made out as the alleged tweet cannot be said to fall within the mischief of defamation," the bench observed while quashing the FIR.

The FIR was lodged on August 2, 2020 in which the police alleged that Singh had made reference to various incidents of abduction, demand of ransom and murders.

The counsel for the petitioner argued that the right to comment on the affairs of the state is well within his constitutional right envisaged under Article 19 of the Constitution.

Mere dissent does not amount to criminality and the FIR has been lodged only with a view to coerce the petitioner to stop expressing his dissent against the state government, he submitted.

The order to quash the FIR was passed on November 23 and uploaded on the high court website recently.