The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has stayed the arrest of Samajwadi Party leader and former minister Yasar Shah in the case of his posting a fake post regarding police recruitment paper leak on X (formerly Twitter).
The Division Bench of Justice Attau Rahman Masoodi and Justice Subhash Vidyarthi heard a petition filed by Yasar Shah.
The FIR lodged against the petitioner under Sections 318(4), 336(3), 338 and 340(2) of B.N.S and Section 13 of the UP Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Ordinance, 2024.
The Court noted that the role of the petitioner is restricted to a tweet of which the improper language which was taken note of in the previous order may be objectionable but we cannot outline the contours of Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India which equally embodies a fundamental right of Freedom of Expression.
The Court observed that embarking on such an issue to define its limits would again be going too far in exercise of the power of judicial review particularly, when the moralities cannot be enforced through a writ. We, therefore, confining the questions limited to the alleged offences mentioned in the FIR are of the considered opinion that as on date nothing has emerged indicating the complicity of the petitioner in the commission of offences mentioned in the FIR.
“Therefore, without obstructing the course of investigation and as an interim measure, the court provided that subject to the cooperation of the petitioner required, if any, he may not be arrested in pursuance of the FIR under challenge. We, however, caution the petitioner to be careful in future for uploading any material on the digital media which has an intent of casting aspersion on any constitutional or highly placed official in an objectionable language,” the order reads.