SC agrees to early hearing of plea for quashing of Tripura police’s UAPA FIR against journalist, lawyers

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 11

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to early hearing of a petition filed on behalf of some lawyers who have been booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967 by the Tripura Police for their alleged provocative social media posts regarding recent communal clashes in the state.

A Bench led by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana agreed to early listing of the matter after advocate Prashant Bhushan sought urgent hearing of their petition seeking quashing of the FIR lodged against them.

Booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967 by the Tripura Police, journalist Shyam M Singh and several others have moved the top court seeking quashing of the FIR lodged against them for their alleged provocative posts regarding recent communal clashes in the state.

The charges under the stringent provisions of the UAPA have been slapped against him for tweeting “Tripura is burning”.

The Editors Guild of India had condemned the Tripura Police’s action, terming it an attempt to use stringent laws to suppress reporting on communal violence.

Four Supreme Court advocates—Ehtesham Hashmi, Amit Srivastava, Ansarul Haq Ansari and Mukesh Kumar – who had conducted a fact finding enquiry into the communal violence in Tripura—have also been sent UAPA notices for their alleged provocative social media posts.

Tripura Police have also initiated action against 102 social media accounts under the UAPA, criminal conspiracy, forgery and other charges and asked Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to freeze these accounts and furnish details about the account holders.

“The petition is filed in relation to the targeted political violence against the Muslim minorities in the State of Tripura during the second half of the month of October 2021, and the subsequent efforts by the State of Tripura to monopolise the flow of information and facts emanating from the affected areas by invoking provisions of the UAPA against members of civil society including advocates and journalists who have made the effort to bring facts in relation to the targeted violence in the public domain,” the petitioners submitted.