The Allahabad High Court will hear tomorrow, a petition challenging the October, 2022 order by an Agra court, which refused to register an FIR against Rajat Sharma, Chairman and Editor-in-chief of India TV, for allegedly calling the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe as ‘lower/small’ castes.
The Single-Judge Bench of Justice Gajendra Kumar would hear on Wednesday the plea preferred by Mukesh Kumar Chaudhary under Section 14A(1) of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
Challenging the judgment passed by the Special Judge (SC/ST Act)/Additional Sessions Judge, Agra in October, 2022, the petition contended that the Agra court failed to take note of the fact that Sharma had committed a cognisable act under Sections 504, 510, 124A IPC and 66, 67 of the Information Technology Act and Sections 3 (1) (r), 3 (2) (va) and 3 (2) (5) of the SC/ST Act by putting out a tweet on July 6, 2021, addressing the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe as ‘lower/small’ castes.
Chaudhary said the presentation of the Schedule Caste and Scheduled Tribes category as lower caste was derogatory, objectionable and forbidden by the Constitution of India. He added that the act was committed in open media by Rajat Sharma, which hurt the sentiments of the petitioner.
The petition further sought direction from the High Court for registration of an FIR against Sharma, his wife Rity Dhawan and Manish Maheshwari, former Twitter India Head.
A local court in Agra had rejected the plea filed by Chaudhary under Section 156 (3) of CrPC, on the ground that the alleged tweet came under the purview of Rajat Sharma’s Right to the Freedom of Speech and Expression.
Noting that the tweet did not appear to insult anyone, the court said it appeared that the application had been filed in order to gain cheap publicity.
(Case title: Mukesh Kumar Chaudhary vs State of UP and others)