MP High Court Denies Anticipatory Bail To Cartoonist For Alleged Objectionable Caricature On PM Modi
The Madhya Pradesh Excessive Courtroom denied anticipatory bail to Cartoonist Hemant Malviya, accused of drawing a derogatory publish together with a “caricature” on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak (RSS) which is said to be revealed on Malviya’s Fb web page.
The grievance in opposition to him alleged that the caricature exhibits the events in an undignified method, which allegedly harm the spiritual sentiment of the complainant.
Noting that the cartoonist ‘clearly overstepped the brink of freedom of speech and expression’, the bench of Justice Subodh Abhyankar opined, “that the custodial interrogation of the applicant can be needed“.
The court docket thereafter noticed that on the “on the face of it” Malviya’s conduct in depicting the RSS, a Hindu organisation together with the PM within the caricature, coupled along with his “endorsement of a quite demeaning comment” dragging unnecessarily the “title of lord Shiva within the feedback tagged to it”, is nothing however the “sheer misuse of the liberty of speech and expression” as enshrined underneath Artwork.19(1)(a) of the Structure, and falls underneath the definition of offence as contended by the complainant.
On the objectional content material in query the court docket famous:
“On due consideration of the rival submissions and perusal of the case diary, it’s discovered that within the applicant’s Fb web page which has been discovered to be objectionable by the complainant, RSS is proven in a human type with its Khaki shorts with a black belt and white shirt, which is the uniform of RSS. This man is bending over along with his shorts pulled down and exposing his backside to the caricature of the Prime Minister, who’s proven with a stethoscope round his neck and who can be holding an injection in his hand, which he’s administering on the underside of the particular person bending over i.e. RSS“.
“Within the thought-about opinion of this Courtroom, the publish turns into extra unsettling when the aforesaid derogatory traces involving Lord Shiva are additionally added to it, and which have additionally been favourably endorsed by the applicant himself who can be encouraging different individuals to experiment with the stated caricature, which actually can’t be stated to be made in good style or religion. It’s obvious that the applicant’s aforesaid act is deliberate and malicious meant to outrage spiritual emotions of the complainant and the general public at massive by insulting its faith, which is prejudicial to the upkeep of concord within the society,” the court docket stated.
The court docket stated that the good thing about Supreme Courtroom’s Arnesh Kumar pointers won’t be out there to the cartoonist who had clearly demonstrated his propensity to commit the stated offence and to advertise the identical in future additionally, the provisions of s.41(1)(b)(i) and (ii) can be attracted in full drive and he can’t take recourse of the good thing about the provisions of s.41A of Cr.P.C./s. 35 of BNSS.
On the petitioner’s argument making a comparability of his work with the work that of famous cartoonist R.Ok. Laxman, the excessive court docket stated that no such caricature drawn by R.Ok.Laxman or every other famous cartoonist had been proven to the court docket which may very well be termed as comparable or shut sufficient to the caricature drawn by Malviya.
The cartoonist, represented by Advocate Rishabh Gupta, submitted that the caricature was drawn as a part of his satirical work, which was solely revealed on his Fb web page however was open for public entry.
The State, represented by Authorities Advocate Amit Raval, the cartoonist can’t be allowed to attract such caricatures within the freedom of speech and expression. The State additional submitted that the cartoonist routinely makes such caricatures as depicted on his Fb web page. Such caricatures, the state argued, disturb the concord of society.
The court docket thus dismissed the anticipatory bail plea.
For Applicant: Advocate Rishabh Gupta
For State: Authorities Advocate Amit Raval
For Objector: Advocate Govind Rai Purohit