NEW DELHI, 3 Jun: Journalists are entitled to protection in sedition cases under a 1962 verdict, so long as they do not incite violence against the government, the Supreme Court held on Thursday while quashing an FIR against Vinod Dua for his alleged comments against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his YouTube show last year.
The veteran scribe had uploaded a video on 30 March last year on ‘The Vinod Dua Show’ on YouTube, allegedly asserting that the prime minister used deaths and terror attacks at Pathankot and Pulwama to garner votes.
The FIR lodged at Kumarsain in Shimla by a Himachal Pradesh-based BJP leader had also alleged that Dua had tried to spread false information such as the government did not have enough testing facilities for Covid-19.
The verdict by a bench of justices Uday Umesh Lalit and Vineet Saran said: “We are… of the firm view that the prosecution of the petitioner for the offences punishable under Sections 124 A and 505 (1) (b) of the IPC 3 would be unjust.
“Those offences, going by the allegations in the FIR and other attending circumstances, are not made out at all and any prosecution in respect thereof would be violative of the rights of the petitioner guaranteed under Article 19 (1) (a) of the constitution.”
The bench analyzed and used the 60-year-old constitution bench verdict in the Kedar Nath Singh vs State of Bihar and said only such activities which would be intended or have a tendency to create disorder or disturbance of public peace by resort to violence are rendered penal.
The principles culled out from the 1962 judgment show that a citizen has a right to criticize or comment upon the measures undertaken by the government and its functionaries, so long as he does not incite people to violence against the government established by law or with the intention of creating public disorder.
The top court gave Dua the clean chit on the allegation that he gave incorrect information on movement of migrant workers and incited the general public.
The FIR against Dua’s alleged offences of sedition, public nuisance, printing defamatory materials and public mischief was lodged by BJP leader Shyam at the Kumarsain police station in Shimla district on 6 May last year and the journalist was asked to join the probe. (PTI)