Rajasthan HC quashes FIR against Twitter chief Jack Dorsey

TNN | Updated: Apr 8, 2020, 10:53 IST

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JODHPUR: The Rajasthan High Court on Tuesday quashed the FIR against Twitter chief Jack Dorsey in a case related to allegedly hurting the religious sentiments of Brahmin community.
The FIR, filed by Jodhpur-based Raj Kumar Sharma, stated that Dorsey had posted an offensive picture on Twitter with a poster in his hand mentioning “Smash Brahminical Patriarchy” during his India visit.
Allowing the miscellaneous petitions by Dorsey and a journalist, Justice Sandeep Mehta said, “I am of the opinion that allowing investigation in the matter is absolutely uncalled for.”
Petitioner’s counsel Nishant Bora said, “The court did not find the offence made out against Dorsey and said that allowing investigation in the matter by the police was absolutely uncalled for. The court did not find the FIR having ingredients of cognizable offence warranting investigation furthermore,” he said.
A complaint by Sharma was filed in November 2018.
Dorsey and a journalist Anna M M Vetticad had moved court with a criminal miscellaneous petition praying quashing of the FIR. The court, however, did not quash the FIR but had stayed the arrest. The post in question, however, had been removed later and an apology had also been tendered for the post amounting to hurting the sentiments of Brahmin community.
Referring to the phrase ascribed as offensive by the complainant, the court stated that these words could not be construed as having any direct link with the religious sentiments of any section of society.
“The words in the poster best convey the feelings of the concerned person regarding being strongly opposed to the Brahminical patriarchal system and desirous of denouncing the same,” the court said.