Coming down heaving on Tripura police for sending notices to activists over social media posts related to the violence that took place in the state last year, the Supreme Court on Monday warned the police that if they did not refrain from harassing people, then it summon the Superintendent of Police and the Home Secretary of the state.
A Bench comprising Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Surya Kant passed the order on an application filed by activist Samiullah Shabir Khan against Tripura police’s notice, seeking his appearance under Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Following the order, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said he would look into the matter and ensure that “the sanctity of the orders is ensured in letter and in spirit”.
Advocate Shahrukh Alam, appearing for the petitioner, mentioned the January 10 interim order passed by the Apex Court, which had stayed Tripura police’s notice to Twitter which sought the removal of tweets by Khan and also his IP address and phone number.
Despite the order, the SP had issued a notice for appearance, he said.
Alam also said that the order had not been physically served to the SP. In response, the bench dictated that no further actions were to be taken in relation to the Section 41A order.
Alam also mentioned that similar notices had been issued to others and asked for the court to grant them protection as well since they had also filed a writ petition but were “scrambling” to get an urgent listing.
Justice Chandrachud directed Alam to send an email to the court master with diary numbers of the petitions so that an urgent listing could be granted and told the state counsel to “inform” the SP not to “harass people” like this.