The court ruled that freedom of the press must prevail, and casual conversations aimed at public awareness about COVID cannot form the basis of criminal proceedings.

JUDGMENT :

S. Muralidhar, CJ.

1. The Petitioner, who is at presenting working as ‘Input Editor’ in Orissa Television Ltd. (OTV), Bhubaneswar has filed this petition under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1972 (Cr.P.C.) seeking the quashing of the criminal proceeding in G.R. Case No.3245 of 2020 pending in the Court S.D.J.M., Bhubaneswar against him under Sections 269, 270, 120-B and 505(1)(b) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) read with Section 52 of the Disaster Management Act , 2005.

2. The background facts are that the audio recording of a telephonic conversation between two men, one of whom claimed to have returned from a COVID Hospital after being identified as a Corona +ive was telecast by the OTV News Channel on 6th August, 2020. The said conversation also was uploaded on Youtube and other social media platform by OTV. The allegation was that one of the men in the conversation had undermined the seriousness of the corona pandemic and claimed that it would be cured without treatment and medicines.

3. An FIR was registered in Capital Police Station (PS) as Capital PS Case No.303 of 2020 under the aforementioned provisions on the ground that by telecasting and circulating the above audio recording, OTV was dissuading the public from availing the requisite treatment thereby causing an increase in the spread of COVID. It was further alleged that as a result of such circulation of the audio recording, fear/alarm was being spread in the public as regards the medical treatment protocol and clinical management of COVID patients. It was further alleged that the OTV was spreading false information regarding misappropriation of central government funds for the treatment of COVID patients and admission of fake cases just to meet the daily targets by the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and other private COVID hospitals. It was alleged that by creating a trust deficit between the government and the public, the telecast by OTV of the aforementioned audio clip was likely to spread panic and fear and induce the public to commit offences against the State.

4. The Petitioner on the other hand claims that the intention behind uploading the audio clip was to alert the government about its existence and requiring the government to go into the root of the matter and verify the claim. An additional affidavit has been filed by the Petitioner placing on record the complete transcript of the conversation including an English translation thereof.

5. Mr. Gautam Misra, learned Senior Advocate appearing for the Petitioner submits that the audio recording that was uploaded on the social media platform of OTV was a casual conversion between two friends and did not attract any of the offences for which the aforementioned FIR has been registered against the Petitioner. Far from creating panic and anxiety, the conversation has pointers on how to prevent the disease and the importance of using masks. Mr. Misra relies on a series of judgments including State of Haryana v. C.S. Bhajanlal AIR 1992 SC 604 and Prakash Mishra v. State of Odisha 2015 (II) OLR 93 to urge that this Court should interfere under Section 482 Cr PC in order to prevent a miscarriage of justice.

6. Further, it is contended by Mr. Misra that inasmuch as OTV is a media platform