Prayagraj:
The Allahabad High Court said that both like and sharing a post on social media are different cases. Only like a post can not be considered to publish or broadcast and it will not be a punishable offense under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act. Also, a single bench of Justice Saurabh Srivastava has canceled criminal action against him by sanctioning a petition filed under the application 482, a resident of Agra.

According to the case, a case was registered against the petitioner Imran in Section 147, 148, 149, 149, Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 of the IPC in 2019 and Section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act. The case was going on in the CJM court under the FIR lodged against the petitioner. In this case, a petition was filed in the High Court to cancel the ongoing proceedings in the CJM court.

What was the allegation against the petitioner?

There was an allegation against the petitioner that he posted some inflammatory messages on social media, resulting in about 600-700 people of the Muslim community gathered to take out the procession without permission and posed a serious threat of disturbing peace. The applicant’s counsel argued in the court that there is no material against the applicant and even the report of cyber crime cell, crime branch and Agra shows that no material was found on the applicant’s Facebook account.

Emphasizing the part of the case diary in the court, the government lawyer said that the material has been mentioned in the cyber cell report. It has been mentioned in that part of the case diary that there is no material in the applicant’s Facebook account because it has removed it, but the material is available on WhatsApp and other social media platforms. Many arguments were presented by both sides and the government opposed the petitioner’s petition.

The petitioner liked the post

The High Court, while hearing, said in its order that a post or message can be called published when it is posted and a post or message can be said to be aired when it is shared or re-tweeted. The court said that the post of a person named Chaudhary Farhan Usman was to gather for performance without permission. The petitioner liked only the post but it is not equal to publishing or broadcasting that post.

Usman’s post was motivated to gather with the Collectorate to submit the memorandum to the President. According to the police, this posed a serious threat of disturbing peace. Apart from the provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the police had also registered a case under Section 67 of the IT Act on Imran Khan. The petitioner told the court that no such material was found on the Facebook account of the accused.

High court canceled criminal action

Police said that it has been removed, but similar materials were found on WhatsApp and other social media platforms. The court said that Section 67 IT Act or any other criminal case is not made on this. Section 67 of the IT Act cannot be implemented in relation to inflammatory content. The court said that Section 67 of the IT Act is for pornographic material and not for inflammatory materials.

After listening to all the parties, the High Court said that criminal action is canceled in this case. Also clarified that if there is no legal barrier then the lower court is free to take action against other co-accused persons.

(Tagstotranslate) Allahabad High Court (T) It Act (T) Allahabad High Court on Act (T) Social Media Posts