SHILLONG, March 25: The Supreme Court on Thursday quashed a nine-month-old FIR against The Shillong Times Editor, Patricia Mukhim for a social media post on violence against non-tribal people in Meghalaya.
The apex court allowed Mukhim’s appeal challenging the Meghalaya High Court’s order on November 10 last year that dismissed the plea to quash the FIR.
The bench comprising the Justice duo of L. Nageswara Rao and S. Ravindra Bhat noted that Mukhim’s Facebook post on July 4 last year was directed at the apathy of the Chief Minister of Meghalaya, the state’s Director General of Police and the local Dorbar Shnong for not taking action against those who assaulted the non-tribal youths.
According to a case registered at the Laban police station, about 25 unidentified boys had on July 3 attacked the non-tribal youths playing basketball in the Lawsohtun area with iron rods and sticks. Six of the assault youths were named as having sustained injuries and undergoing treatment at a hospital.
“The attack upon six non-locals, carried out by masked individuals, is not denied by the State; its reporting too is not denied. The state in fact issued a press release. There appears to be no headway in the investigations. The complaint made by the Dorbar Shnong, Lawsohtun that the statement of the appellant would incite communal tension and might instigate a communal conflict in the entire state is only a figment of imagination,” the court observed.
“The fervent plea made by the appellant for protection of non-tribals living in the state of Meghalaya and for their equality cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be categorised as hate speech. It was a call for justice – for action according to law, which every citizen has a right to expect and articulate. Disapprobation of governmental inaction cannot be branded as an attempt to promote hatred between different communities,” the court said.
Allowing Mukhim’s appeal challenging the Meghalaya High Court’s order, the bench referred to Sections 153 A and 501 (1) (c) of the Indian Penal Code and observed that the law needs to step in only when written or spoken words have the tendency of creating public disorder or disturbance or law and order or affecting public tranquillity.
