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Supreme Court rebukes cartoonist over undignified cartoon on PM, RSS
The cartoonist told the Supreme Court that he was willing to delete the controversial Facebook post and would even issue a disclaimer apologising for it
The Supreme Court on Monday told an Indore-based cartoonist that his caricature in a social media post depicting the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an undignified manner was “certainly in bad taste”.
The court’s observation came while considering the anticipatory bail petition filed by the cartoonist, Hemant Malviya, apprehending arrest in a criminal case lodged against him at Indore in May this year.
The Madhya Pradesh high court had refused to grant him protection from arrest on July 3.
Malviya said that he was willing to delete the post published on Facebook in 2021 and would even issue a disclaimer apologising for the content posted by him. The top court has posted the matter on Tuesday.
Going through the content of the caricature drawn by Malviya, the bench of justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Aravind Kumar said, “Whatever we may do, but definitely the freedom of speech and expression is being abused.”
The court even commented on the new-age cartoonists and stand up comedians coming up with crass content in the name of humour. “Look at these cartoonists and stand up comedians, what they do…Particularly these youngsters have come up. They have no maturity. In this case, he is an adult of about 50 years, which is much worse.”
“It (the post) is certainly in bad taste. You cannot do this,” the bench said, referring to the caricature that sought to make fun of the vaccination drive during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Advocate Vrinda Grover appearing for Malviya said that the social media post was subsequently circulated in May this year with words that were not by the petitioner. She agreed to delete the post and offer a disclaimer about the content.
“I will write a line that whatever is depicted here, I do not approve of. He will post this as certainly this is not in good taste. He will even delete the post,” Grover said, requesting the court to grant him protection from arrest. “This is a question of personal liberty. Whether this case requires my arrest and remand is the limited point the court may consider,” she said, stating that the Madhya Pradesh police have sought his arrest after the high court dismissed his plea for pre-arrest bail.
The complaint against Malviya claimed that Malviya had published the cartoon on Facebook which were “offensive”, “obscene”, and “indecent”. The complainant Vinay Joshi, who claimed to be a lawyer and RSS activist, said that the posts had hurt Hindu religious sentiments and caused damage to RSS’s image.
The police had registered a case under sections 196, 299, and 352 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for actions allegedly harming communal harmony and hurting religious feelings. Besides, he was also charged under provisions of the Information Technology Act.
Additional solicitor general (ASG) KM Nataraj appearing for the state said that the court should not interfere as people take liberty to post all sorts of material on social media putting the burden on the state to handle law and order situation resulting from it.
“What is posted is not just a question of having maturity. This person who is 50 years of age has still not matured….They think they can do anything on social media. If law breaks down, it comes to our head. They later come to court and apologise and put a quietus to the entire controversy. At some point, this needs to be dealt with,” Nataraj said.
The bench said that they do not operate the social media except for reading some messages.The court told the state, “He (Malviya) has learnt his lessons,” as it agreed to take up the matter on Tuesday.
Grover said, “Social media is a beast of its own. There are ways of projecting a post. But I am on personal liberty. Protect him till tomorrow.” The bench remarked that nothing is going to happen in a day.
The complainant represented in the matter by senior advocate Sonia Mathur opposed the bail alleging that the post is “highly inflammatory”. Mathur stated that the caricature depicting the PM and RSS circulated on social media is “absolutely communally charged”.
The bench told Mathur that the complainant had done his job by filing the complaint and bringing the matter to the notice of the police.
The high court while refusing anticipatory bail to Malviya said, “The conduct of the anticipatory bail applicant in depicting the RSS, which is a Hindu organisation, along with the country’s PM in the aforesaid caricature, coupled with his endorsement of a rather demeaning remark, dragging unnecessarily the name of Lord Shiva in the comments tagged to it, is nothing but the sheer misuse of speech and expression as enshrined under Art.19(1)(a) of the Constitution, and falls under the definition of offence as contended by the complainant.”
The high court further observed, “It is apparent that the applicant’s aforesaid act is deliberate and malicious intended to outrage religious feelings of the complainant and the public at large by insulting its religion, which is prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony in the society.”
The case against Malviya was filed before Lasudia police station in Indore on May 21, pursuant to which even the trial court had refused him pre-arrest bail on May 24.
