Editors Guild members granted interim protection by SC on Manipur Police FIRs

Four members of the Editors Guild of India (EGI) were granted interim protection by the Supreme Court on Wednesday from FIRs registered by Manipur Police over a fact-finding report on the ethnic violence in the state.

A bench comprising chief justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra ordered that no coercive steps were to be taken against the petitioners and issued a notice to Manipur on the writ petition filed by EGI members. The matter will be heard again on 11 September.

"Issue notice to the state. No coercive steps to be taken against petitioners till the next date of hearing,” ordered the bench.

EGI had moved the Supreme Court through senior advocate Shyam Divan for an urgent hearing in the matter. Divan mentioned that two FIRs had been registered against the members of the fact-finding team, alleging that their report “promoted enmity”.

Divan added that the EGI was seeking directions under article 32 of the Constitution to quash two FIRs registered by the state police. The CJI agreed to hear the case after the admission matters for the day were over.

Manipur Police registered an FIR against EGI president Seema Mustafa and three of its members — Seema Guha, Bharat Bhushan and Sanjay Kapoor — who were part of the fact-finding team that visited Manipur from 7 to 10 August to examine how media in the state were reporting the violence, and concluded that local news reports on the violence were biased. The FIRs are based on complaints which stated that the report was false and fabricated.

There had been an error in the report, which Divan informed the court had been corrected the day after 2 September, when the report was published. “The FIR states that the report promotes enmity. We are worried about the coercive machinery of the government,” said Divan.

Though the bench wanted to dispose the petition after granting interim protection, Diwan pointed out that Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh had made the allegations at a press conference. This had made his clients anxious about what the state government would do. Following this, the bench agreed to issue notice on the petition and grant interim protection.