Freedom of speech is being abused
A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Aravind Kumar asked the counsel of cartoonist Hemant Malviya, 'Why do you do all this?' Malviya has sought anticipatory bail in the matter.
Advocate Vrinda Grover, representing Malviya, said the matter was over a cartoon made in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic.
'It may be unpalatable. Let me say it is in poor taste. Let me go to that extent. But is it an offence? My lords have said it can be offensive, but it is not an offence. I am simply on law. I am not trying to justify anything,' she said. Grover agreed to delete the post made by Malviya.
'Whatever we may do with this case, this is definitely the case that the freedom of speech and expression is being abused,' Justice Dhulia observed.
Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, appearing for Madhya Pradesh, said such "things" were repeatedly done
'It is not the question of maturity alone. It is something more,' Nataraj said, while responding to Grover, who had said there should be some maturity. Referring to the time of the cartoon's inception, Grover said there had been no law and order problem since then. She said the issue was of personal liberty and whether this would require arrest and remand.
Grover requested the bench grant interim protection to the petitioner until then. 'We will see this on Tuesday,' the bench said.Malviya is challenging a Madhya Pradesh High Court order passed on July 3 refusing to grant him anticipatory bail. The cartoonist was booked by the Lasudiya police station in Indore in May on a complaint filed by a lawyer and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh worker, Vinay Joshi. Joshi had alleged that Malviya hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus and disturbed communal harmony by uploading objectionable material on social media. The FIR mentioned various "objectionable" posts, including allegedly inappropriate comments on Lord Shiva as well as cartoons, videos, photographs and comments regarding PM Modi, RSS workers and others.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News18
13 minutes ago
- News18
WBSSC Gets 5.9 Lakh Applications For 35,726 Teacher Posts, Double The 2016 Count
Last Updated: WBSSC has received nearly 5.9 lakh applications for 35,726 assistant teacher posts, almost double 2016, after SC scrapped earlier 'tainted' appointments. The West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) has received an overwhelming response to its fresh recruitment drive, with nearly 5.9 lakh candidates applying for assistant teacher positions. This is almost twice the number of applications received in 2016. According to senior officials, the commission has received applications for 35,726 assistant teacher posts at secondary and higher secondary levels in state-run and state-aided schools. In comparison, around 3.16 lakh candidates had applied for similar posts during the 2016 recruitment. The fresh drive follows a Supreme Court directive issued in April this year, which scrapped the appointments of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff in government-aided schools, labelling the 2016 recruitment process as 'tainted." The court directed the state government and WBSSC to conduct a new recruitment and complete the process by December 31, 2025. Subsequently, WBSSC issued a recruitment notification on May 30, announcing 23,312 posts for classes 9 and 10, and 12,514 posts for classes 11 and 12. The application portal opened on June 16 as per Supreme Court orders. While the initial deadline for online applications was July 14, it was later extended to July 21. On Wednesday, the Calcutta High Court gave a green signal to the ongoing recruitment process, noting that the updated rules are stricter and prioritise students' interests. WBSSC Chairman Siddhartha Majumdar confirmed the numbers, stating, 'Some 5.8-5.9 lakh candidates have applied for the posts of assistant teachers in state-run and state-aided secondary and higher-secondary schools." An official quoted from commission records to add: 'While a total of 1.41 lakh candidates had applied for classes 9-10 in 2016, another 1.75 lakh candidates had registered for teaching positions for classes 11-12 that year." Despite a section of teachers who lost jobs due to the court order vowing not to appear for the new exams, the WBSSC noted a significant number of them have reapplied. 'Nearly 13,000 of the 15,403 teachers, who were 'not found to be specifically tainted' by the commission and whose names it had forwarded to the offices of Directorate of Education (DI) in districts for continuation in service till the new recruitment process gets over, have applied for the vacant posts for which State Level Selection Test (SLST) will be held later this year," another SSC official said. The commission is now preparing to conduct the SLST later this year to fill the announced vacancies. (With inputs from PTI) view comments Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Indian Express
39 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Kanwariyas have their right to choose. But eatery owners also have their right to privacy
The Supreme Court, on July 22, in a significant turn, refused to intervene and probe into the legality of the directives issued by the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments mandating the owners of eateries along the route of the Kanwar Yatra to display QR codes with details of their names, types of food served, license and registration certificates. The Uttar Pradesh government claimed that the idea behind this directive was to ensure transparency and uphold the choice of the Kanwariyas to abstain from consuming certain food during the yatra. This is a departure from the SC's earlier stand on this issue. In 2024, the SC had placed an interim stay prohibiting the enforcement of a similar directive and stated that the eateries along the Kanwar yatra route may be required to display the kind of food being served but they should not be forced to display the name or identity of the owners. However, on Tuesday, the SC found this petition infructuous, given that the yatra is over, and directed the petitioners to approach the High Court for a detailed order on the merits of the directive. This is a constitutional quagmire impacting not only the right to privacy of the owners of the eateries, but also affecting the very tenets of secularism. The imminent threat of police action could also provoke an infringement of Fundamental Rights guaranteed under Article 14, 15(1), 17 and 19(1)(g) of the Constitution. The major question rests on the touchstone of the guidelines laid down in KS Puttaswamy vs Union of India regarding the right to privacy. The guidelines state that every state action impacting an individual's right to privacy must satisfy the tests of proportionality, necessity, legitimate aim and suitability. This, in the context of Article 21, means that an invasion of privacy must be justified based on a law that stipulates a procedure that is fair, just, and reasonable. An invasion of life or personal liberty must also meet the threefold requirement of (i) legality, which postulates the existence of a statute; (ii) need, defined in terms of a state's legitimate aim; and (iii) proportionality, which ensures a rational nexus between the objects and the means adopted to achieve them. However, in this case, the state action does not seem to have qualified any of the aforementioned requirements. Firstly, as rightly argued by several petitioners in this case, the directive was neither authorised by a statute nor was it proportionate or necessary to achieve its slated objectives. As argued by the petitioners, if the slated purpose of the directive was to ensure that the Kanwariyas have access to pure vegetarian food along the route of the yatra, then the mandate to disclose the names of the eatery owners has no bearing, if all eateries are anyway serving pure vegetarian food as per their dietary requirements. Lastly, the names of the owners of these eateries are an inevitable marker of their caste and religious identities, and a mandate for the disclosure of these details by state action is violative of their fundamental right to privacy under Article 21. This particular case called for a balancing act by the SC, to maintain the crucial equilibrium between the consumer's right to know (for religious sentiments), vis-a-vis the right of the eatery owners to maintain their privacy. The impact of the Court's order refusing to intervene with the QR code requirement shall stand out as a case wherein the customer's right to know trumped the fundamental right to privacy of the eatery owners. If a balancing act between competing rights is not adequately performed by the constitutional courts, it may affect the constitutional ethos. The constitutionality of such directives must be tested by the existing legal provisions. The writer is a research fellow at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy
Indian Express
39 minutes ago
- Indian Express
NEET-UG 2025: SC declines to allow counselling for candidates seeking retest
The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to grant its provisional nod for appearing in counselling of NEET-UG-2025 to two candidates, who faced a power outage in their examination centres in Madhya Pradesh. A bench of Justices P S Narasimha and A S Chandurkar, however, listed petitions of Navya Nayak and S Sai Priya for further hearing on July 25. The candidates have challenged the July 14 order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court refusing to order a re-test for them. The counsel for the petitioners submitted that a notification was issued for the counselling and sought provisional permission to participate in it. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the National Testing Agency, said one of the prayers in both the petitions for a re-test couldn't be allowed as it would affect lakhs of students, who wrote the examination. The bench declined to issue interim directions and deferred the hearing. On July 16, the top court agreed to hear the plea of the candidates who appeared in the examination and suffered a power outage in certain centres. A single judge of the high court directed the National Testing Agency to conduct retest of the NEET-UG-2025 examination for candidates affected by power outage at certain centres in Indore and Ujjain of the state. The division bench of the high court, however, set aside the single judge order on the plea of the National Testing Agency but cautioned against any recurrence in future. It took note of an expert panel report opining that though there was power outage at some centres, there was natural light to enable candidates to write the test.
