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HC grants interim bail to UT filmmaker
The Kerala high court on Thursday granted interim anticipatory bail to Lakshadweep-based filmmaker and model Aisha Sultana in connection with a sedition case filed over her remark on the Union territory’s administrator
The Kerala high court on Thursday granted interim anticipatory bail to Lakshadweep-based filmmaker and model Aisha Sultana in connection with a sedition case filed over her remark on the Union territory’s administrator. The court has reserved the final order on her anticipatory bail application for next week
A single judge bench of Justice Ashok Menon directed her to appear before the police for questioning on June 20 in the case.
OnJune 11, the Kavaratti police registered a case against Sultana under sections 124 (A) (sedition) and 153 (B) (acts against national interests) of the Indian penal code. The FIR was based on the complaint of Lakshadweep BJP president C Abdul Khadar Haji.
In the complaint, Haji cited a debate on a Malayalam news channels, in which Sultana called the Union territory’s administrator, Praful Khoda Patel a bio-weapon. Haji said her words were in bad taste and intended to create hatred and aversion in the minds of people. Later, Sultana expressed regrets over her words.
Patel has become a controversial figure in the UT for his whimsical orders, some of which threaten the way of life of the residents or threaten the islands’ fragile environment.
But her comment did not go down well with the Lakshadweep administration and the union government, both of which opposed her bail plea saying her words are being quoted by many, including foreign media, to portray the country in bad light.
Opposing Sultana’s plea, standing counsel for the UT, S Manu said, “She made a powerful and noxious assertion against the government of India. She has practically sowed seeds of separatism in the minds of people.”
The counsel for the central government, Krishna Raj added “her [Sultana’s]remarks have international ramifications.”
However, filmmaker’s counsel P Vijaybhanu argued that bio-weapon remark was used to criticise new regulations brought in the island. He also cited the June 3Supreme Court judgement in journalist Vinod Dua’s case that mere strong words do not count as an act of sedition.
The court had quashed the FIR lodged against Dua in Himachal Pradesh in May last year, in connection with uploading a video in Youtube for allegedly spreading rumours and ‘instigating’ people during the communal violence the broke out in Delhi in February 2020.
“A citizen has a right to criticise or comment upon the measures undertaken by the government and its functionaries, so long as he does not incite people to violence against the government established by law or with the intention of creating public disorder,” said the top court in its order.
For over a month now, residents of the archipelago have been protesting against the draft Lakshadweep Development Authority Regulation (2021) that proposes to develop the islands as a major tourist destination, a proposed Goonda Act and plan to ban cow slaughter, saying that the changes “will affect the unique culture and tradition” of the island. They allege it will destroy the islands’ character and identity since 97% of the islands are covered by pristine forests and 95% of its Muslim population belong to the protected scheduled tribe category.
Many parliamentarians, former bureaucrats, and artists have described the draft regulations as “arbitrary” and aimed against the majority community of the islands.
On May 31, the Kerala assembly passed a unanimous resolution seeking the recall of the administrator and later, 93 retired bureaucrats sent a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticising the “partisan attitude” of the new administrator and called for the protection of the unique culture and tradition of the islands.
