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Quashes Hijack Tweet FIR Against Passenger, Imposes ₹30,000 Costs
A costly mistweet: The has quashed an FIR lodged against a SpiceJet passenger over a false hijack tweet, but not without penalising him.
The court allowed the petition of Moti Singh Rathore seeking quashing of FIR No. 60/2023 registered at under Sections 341, 505(1)(b) and 507 . Justice Saurabh Banerjee imposed costs of ₹30,000 payable to the Staff Welfare Fund.
From a routine delay to a criminal case
On , Rathore was travelling on SpiceJet flight SG-58 from Dubai to Jaipur. The flight was diverted to IGI Airport, New Delhi, due to severe bad weather, leading to a six-hour delay. Frustrated, Rathore — not fluent in English — posted a tweet:
"SG 58 Dubai to Jaipur high jacked"
, tagging the Civil Aviation Minister. He soon realised his error and posted corrective tweets within an hour, apologising and explaining in Hindi that his limited English caused the mistake. The FIR followed, and Rathore moved the High Court under read with .
Quashing arguments
Counsel for the petitioner argued that the tweet was directed at the Civil Aviation Minister to highlight the delay, with no intention to cause public panic. Rathore’s young age and clean antecedents were also cited. The State’s counsel, after accepting notice, had no objection to quashing.
The legal test applied
The High Court invoked State of Haryana v. Bhajan Lal (1992 Supp (1) SCC 335), observing that an FIR can be quashed when allegations, even if accepted as true, do not disclose a offence. While acknowledging the tweet could have had serious repercussions, the court noted there had been no untoward incident.
Key observations
Justice Banerjee observed:
"No doubt, the act of the petitioner may have led to serious repercussions, however, what entails, there was no untoward incident resulting therefrom."
He further noted that Rathore corrected himself
"in less than an hour twice over, and that too giving reasons"
, and being a young man with clean antecedents, this was a fit case for quashing.
Decision
The FIR was quashed subject to costs of ₹30,000 to be deposited within two weeks. Rathore must furnish proof within one week thereafter. The ruling underscores that even a genuine language error on social media may attract scrutiny, but swift correction and clean antecedents can weigh heavily in favour of quashing.
