New Delhi (IL News Service): The Supreme Court today declined to entertain a plea seeking directions to prevent the “communalisation of the reporting of Covid-19 cases” by Chief Minister of Delhi in his official capacity via different modes as well as on social media via his official and verified twitter handle @CMODelhi.
A three-judge bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R. Subhash Reddy and M. R. Shah said: “We are not inclined to entertain” while observing that grievance raised by has been sufficiently taken care of.
The petitioner submitted before the court that the subject matter of his petition is the IT Act and not Information and Broadcast and prayed before the court to tag his matter along with other pending matters on the same issue. “We prayed for the decryption of Twitter handle of @CMODelhi. Religious profiling of the disease was done. It is against the right to life with dignity,” he said.
The Court refused to pass such an order.
The petitioner had contended in his writ petition that while the entire nation was in a lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic, when the nation should have been fighting the pandemic, leaders should believe in spreading unity and harmony among citizens of India, the head of the state, Arvind Kejriwal, supported such news against a particular community of Muslims and tweeted from his @CMO Delhi as a separate caption “Masjid Markaz”. The phrases used by all the medium of news such as “Corona Jihad, Corona Terrorism, Islamic Insurrection, Corona Bomb” etc.
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The petitioner had sought directions to issue writ of mandamus to prohibit and stop the publicizing of information or data on Coronavirus or any disease on the basis of religion, caste, community, religious identity, or religious groups or on the basis of religious classifications.
-India Legal Bureau