The Hindustan Times and several newspapers online shared important observations of the Hon’ble Supreme Court which came after senior advocate Siddhartha Dave, appearing on behalf of the West Bengal government, informed the bench that it has decided to withdraw the FIRs registered against Nupur J Sharma, the editor of Opindia.com, YouTuber Ajeet Bharti and others including its founder and CEO.
State force should never be used to either browbeat a political opinion or journalists, the Supreme Court has said, calling for “introspection from the political class across the country” over debasement in dialogue which is taking place. as reported in the Hindustan Times.
We hasten to add that this does not take away the responsibility of the journalists in how they report the matters, more so in a Twitter age.”
A bench comprising Justices SK Kaul and MM Sundresh made these observations while quashing the FIRs against editors of a news web portal and others, in connection with articles published in West Bengal.
In a country which prides itself on its diversity, there are bound to be different perceptions and opinions which would include political opinions, the apex court said. That is very essence of a democracy, it said.
The top court had earlier stayed further proceedings in a fresh FIR lodged in West Bengal against them. On June 26 last year, the top court had stayed further proceedings in three FIRs lodged in West Bengal against petitioners.
The petitioners had claimed they were informed that the cause of one of the FIRs lodged by police was an article published by the news web portal on the issue of alleged hiding of data related to COVID-19.
Photo: Ujjwal Jajjoo West Bengal Howrah Bridge on Unsplash
