The legal point established is that to prosecute under Section 153 IPC, the act must be illegal, malignantly done, and result in a situation causing riot. Good faith publication by an editor is not illegal.

ORDER :

Prayer: Criminal Original Petition is filed under Section 438 of Criminal Procedure Code, praying to enlarge the petitioner herein on bail in the event of arrest in connection with the FIR in Crime No.220 of 2023, pending investigation on the file of the respondent police.

The petitioner who apprehends arrest at the hands of the respondent police for the offences punishable under Sections 153, 504, 505 (1) (b) and 505(ii) of IPC, in Crime No.220 of 2023, on the file of the respondent police, seeks anticipatory bail.

2. Mr.V.Raghavachari, learned Senior counsel representing Mr.R.Harikrishnan, learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that, the petitioner has been falsely arrayed as an accused in this case in Crime No.220 of 2023, registered for the offences under Sections 153, 504, 505(1)(b) and 505(ii) of IPC. The petitioner is the Director of an online news and views portal called “The Commune”. He is a law abiding citizen and he belongs to the opposition political party. On 17.06.2023, the petitioner was arrested on a false and frivolous allegations relating to a tweet posted by him on his twitter account. Thereafter, he was enlarged on bail on 20.06.2023. He would submit that the present FIR is registered on the basis of a complaint of the Village Administrative Officer, Chidambram, on some false and frivolous accusation. A reading of the FIR allegations would show that the FIR is made up and is intended to curtail journalistic freedom. The petitioner has just reported an incident that had happened in Chidambaram temple and that, he has not reported anything which had not happened. The allegations made in the FIR while taken in its face value, do not make out ingredients for the offences under Sections 153, 504, 505(1)(b) and 505(ii) IPC. Therefore, this petition is filed seeking anticipatory bail. In support of his submissions, he produced the Judgment of Bombay High Court in Aroon Purie Vs. H.L.Varma reported in 1999 (1) Mh.L.J. 60.

3. Mr.R.Muniyapparaj, learned Additional Public Prosecutor, strongly opposed this petition on the ground that, the petitioner had twitted in his online news portal namely “The Commune” alleging that, “the Deekshitars, who opposed the entry, faced physical aggression, with their clothes torn and their sacred threads (poonool/janeu) cut in the process”. The allegation against the petitioner is that, the news that "the sacred thread cut" had not happened at all. By spreading false news malignantly or wantonly, the petitioner committed illegal act to give provocation which would result in riot. The petitioner is regularly involving in publishing false news with intent to spread divisiveness among different groups of community. Journalistic freedom of expression is not absolute, it is subject to reasonable restrictions. Petitioner has violated the reasonable restrictions and created a situation leading to law and order issue and breach of public peace. Therefore, he strongly opposed for grant of anticipatory bail to the petitioner. In support of his submission, he relied on the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court as follows;

i. In Amish Devgan Vs. Union of India and others reported in (2021) 1 SCC 1 wherein, it is held that;

“96. The view expressed by the Bombay High Court in Gopal Vinayak Godse [Gopal Vinayak Godse v. Union of India, 1969 SCC OnLine Bom 88 : AIR 1971 Bom 56] lays considerable emphasis on the words itself, but the view expressed in P.K. Chakravarti [P.K. Chakravarti v. King Emperor, 1926 SCC OnLine Cal 96 : AIR 1926 Cal 1133] and Devi Sharan Sharma [Devi Sharan Sharma v. Emperor, 1927 SCC OnLine Lah 454 : AIR 1927 Lah 594] take a much broader and a wider picture which, in our opinion, would be the right way to examine whether an offence under Section 153-A clauses (1)(a) and (b) had been committed. The ordinary reasonable meaning of the matter complained of may be either