'Objectionable' posts against PM Modi, RSS: Cartoonist moves Supreme Court for anticipatory bail

Indore-based cartoonist Hemant Malviya has moved the Supreme Court challenging an order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court refusing to grant him anticipatory bail in a case relating to uploading “objectionable” cartoons of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and RSS workers on social media.

A Bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Joymalya Bagchi on directed listing of the matter on July 14 before an appropriate Bench after his counsel Vrinda Grover sought urgent hearing in the matter.

The case related to a cartoon Malviya made in 2021 during Covid, Grover said, adding the high court has condemned the cartoonist as it said that no landmark cases like in Arnesh Kumar and Imran Pratapgarhi, which dealt with life and liberty, will be followed. “The offence is under BNS which entails a maximum of three years of punishment,” she submitted.

Terming it a deliberate and malicious attempt to outrage religious feelings, the high court said Malviya “clearly overstepped the threshold of freedom of speech and expression”.

Malviya’s lawyer had contended before the high court that he only posted a cartoon and he could not be held responsible for the comments posted on it by other Facebook users.

An FIR was registered against Malviya at Lasudiya police station of Indore in May on the complaint of local lawyer and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh worker Vinay Joshi. Malviya hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus and disturbed communal harmony by uploading objectionable material on social media, the complaint alleged.

The FIR accused him of posting indecent and objectionable material with the intention of hurting religious sentiments of Hindus and tarnishing the RSS’s image.

Police have invoked Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 196 (acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony between different communities), 299 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings) and 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) as well as section 67-A (publishing or transmitting in electronic form any sexually explicit material) of the Information Technology Act against the accused.

The FIR mentioned various “objectionable” posts, including allegedly inappropriate comments on Lord Shiva as well as cartoons, videos, photographs and comments regarding Modi, RSS workers and others.

“On the face of it, the conduct of the applicant in depicting the RSS, which is a Hindu organisation, along with the prime minister of this country 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 sheer misuse of freedom of speech and expression as enshrined under Art 19(1)(a) of the Constitution...,” the HC said.