Making Allegation Against Political Leaders Even If Untrue Not Offence Under 505 IPC: HC Quashes FIRs Against Sambit Patra

BACKSTORY

• This case started off in May 2020, when a Congress Member of Parliament posted a tweet criticising the Narendra Modi Government for its mishandling of the COVID-19 crisis. Furthermore in reply to this tweet, Sambit Patra stated if the Congress party would have been in charge of the pandemic, there would have been corruption on a mass scale.
• A complaint was filed in Delhi seeking registration of an FIR against Patra for offences under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for using derogatory remarks against the Congress party and its leaders.
• Following this news, Patra once again took to Twitter, this time to blame Nehru for the conflict in Jammu & Kashmir and accusing Rajiv Gandhi for playing a role in the Bofors Scandal and the killing of 3,000 Sikhs.
• Due to such comments on Twitter a second complaint was then filed against Patra in Chhattisgarh for registration of offences under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the IPC and Section 66 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

COURTS CONTENTIONS

• The High Court held that there was no intention on the part of the petitioner herein to promote class/community hatred and no attempt was made by the petitioner to incite the people belonging to a community to indulge in any violence.
• The High Court consequently directed the quashing of the FIRs registered against Patra

RESULTS

• Today the Chhattisgarh High Court quashed First Information Reports (FIRs) registered against BJP Spokesperson Sambit Patra for his tweets on former Prime Ministers of India Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi.
• Single Judge Bench of Justice Sanjay K Agrawal held while the contents of the tweets might be untrue, it was not of such nature that could any community to commit an offence against another.
• The Court contended that merely making allegation against the leaders of a political party even if it is incorrect/untrue would not constitute offence under Section 505(1) of the IPC.

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