O R D E R

Petitioner, invoking the provisions of Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (for short “Cr.P.C.”), has approached this Court for quashing FIR No. 51 of 2021, dated 7.5.2021, registered in Police Station East, Shimla under Sections 419, 468, 471 of Indian Penal Code (for short “IPC”), Section 66(D) of Information Technology Act, 2000 (for short “IT Act”) and Section 54 of Disaster Management Act, 2005 (for short “DM Act”).

2. Petitioner is a journalist by profession, who, since 2017, remained associated with various media houses and has been working with Zee Media House since January, 2021 and is posted in Shimla.

3. During Covid-19 Pandemic, vide order dated 25.4.2021, Government of Himachal Pradesh through Secretary (Health), to the Government of Himachal Pradesh-cum-Mission Director (National Health Mission) had issued an order invoking provisions of Himachal Pradesh Epidemic Disease (COVID-19) Regulations 2020 and The Epidemic Disease Act, 1897 with certain direction to combat and control the spread of Covid-19 Pandemic. Besides other directions, there was a direction that all inter-state movement into the State shall be monitored through registration in COVID e-pass software to monitor compliance with the quarantine requirements and facilitate contact tracing of persons in event of detection of COVID-19 positive cases and, therefore, all persons desirous of entering the State shall register themselves on online software and details of their arrival was to be shared with all concerned for the purpose of quarantine requirement and contact tracing.

4. It is the case of the petitioner that on noticing increase in interstate vehicular movement, despite imposition of strict restrictions on interstate movement of vehicles and prerequisite condition of generation of an e-pass for any kind of inter-state movement only on assigning a valid reason at the time of registration on the portal, petitioner, being a responsible Journalist and acting in larger interest of public, carried out an investigation about the claims of administration qua verification of registration forms of persons entering Himachal Pradesh in compliance of order dated 25.4.2021 and 5.5.2021. During this investigation, petitioner noticed that registration as well as generation of e-pass were being done in mechanical manner without any verification by the authorities and, therefore, he obtained requisite permission from his Bureau Chief to proceed further in order to highlight the discrepancy in the entire process and for which he conducted a reality check qua veracity of functioning of the web portal.

5. Petitioner filled two online registration forms on the portal for issuance of two e-passes for entering the State of Himachal Pradesh without assigning any valid reason. The registration so made was in the names of two renowned personalities, i.e. Amitabh Bachchan and Donald Trump. Names of renowned personalities were used with hope that names so mentioned would definitely be taken note of by the authorities during the process of verification.

6. It is further case of the petitioner that as identity proof he deliberately uploaded his own valid details, i.e. Adhaar Card number and telephone number, for above mentioned registrations and also mentioned two random vehicle numbers alongwith other details.

7. Pursuant to afore registration, e-passes so applied in the names of Amitabh Bachachan and Donald Trump by the petitioner were generated which substantiated the fact that passes were being issued without, any verification of accompanying documents, in a mechanical manner.

8. It is the case of the petitioner that entire exercise was undertaken by him with a bonafide intention to unearth the truth and loopholes in the system behind the entire process of registration, for the larger public interest.

9. It is further case of the petitioner that generation of aforesaid two e-passes was brought by him to the notice of certain senior authorities of the State in