[Lakshadweep] Kerala High Court refuses to stay FIR registered against Aisha Sultana in Sedition case

The Kerala High Court on Friday declined to stay proceedings related to the First Information Report (FIR) registered against filmmaker Aisha Sultana by the Lakshadweep Police for sedition and promoting enmity between different religions (Ayshommabi AM @ Aysha Sulthana v. Union territory of Lakshadweep)..Justice Ashok Menon today heard the petition filed by Sultana seeking to quash the FIR. He noted in his order that the prosecution must be given more time to gather evidence and conduct a through investigation in the matter. .He stated that it would be improper for the Court to interfere at this stage of the investigation, and directed the prosecution to file its counter affidavit and a report regarding the stages of the investigation within two weeks..Justice Menon had earlier granted anticipatory bail to Sultana in relation to the same case. .Last month, Lakshadweep Police had registered an FIR against Sultana on the basis of a complaint filed by a BJP leader alleging that she had made false, "anti-national" statements on live TV. In a televised interview, she had said that the Central government's decision to relax COVID-19 restrictions on the islands was a “bio-weapon” against the natives of the island. .Lakshadweep Filmmaker Aisha Sultana moves Kerala High Court for Anticipatory Bail in Sedition case.Advocate KA Akbar, appearing for Sultana today, submitted that subsequent to the controversial remarks made by his client on the panel discussion, she had taken to social media and given interviews to several news channels apologising for the same.He reiterated that Sultana clarified through these posts that she had only intended to say that it was due to the apathetic approach of the new administrator, Praful Patel, that serious threat is being caused to the lives of the people of the island. Further, he submitted that his client had absolutely no intention of exciting disaffection towards the government..Akbar relied on the judgments of the Supreme Court in Kedar Nath Singh v. State of Bihar and Vinod Dua v. Union of India to buttress his arguments.As per these judgments, Akbar stated, it is the settled position of law that the provisions of Sections 124A (sedition), 153B (promoting enmity between different religions) of the Indian Penal Code cannot be invoked to penalise criticism of persons in the administration. Strong words used to express dissatisfaction of the measures of any government with a view to improve them in a lawful manner do not fall under the ambit of these provisions, he added.He claimed that prima facie, Sultana did not have a malicious motive to subvert the government established by using the strong word “bio-weapon” to express her vehement in disapproval of the change in the COVID-19 Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) for the Union Territory.On these grounds, among others, he pressed for an interim stay of the proceedings against Sultana..Additional Solicitor General for India Aman Lekhi, assisted by Standing Counsel S Manu, appeared for the Lakshadweep Administration. Lekhi submitted that there is no merit in the request for quashing of the FIR. He drew attention to the fact that during the panel discussion, Sultana did not make the "bio-weapon" remark just once, but she repeated it several times and even declined to withdraw the alleged seditious assertion at the suggestion of the anchor. Therefore, he asserted that the offences alleged would definitely stand. Furthermore, the ASG argued that quashing of FIR is permissible only in limited circumstances and such grounds are lacking in this case, especially considering the fact that the investigation is only in its preliminary stage..Justice Menon agreed with the prosecution in this regard and opined that the investigation agencies must be given more time to probe the matter..After the FIR was registered against her last month, Sultana had approached the Kerala High Court seeking anticipatory bail..[BREAKING] Kerala High Court grants interim protection from arrest for one week to Lakshadweep filmmaker Aisha Sultana in sedition case.The Court had, on June 17, granted her interim protection from arrest for a week, directing that if she is arrested after interrogation, she should be released on interim anticipatory bail. The Court had further directed Sultana to appear before the Lakshadweep Police for interrogation as required under Section 41A of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC)..However, the Lakshadweep Administration later filed an application before the High Court alleging that the filmmaker had abused the Court's earlier interim protection and broke COVID-19 protocol on the islands.It was stated in the application that her blatant violation of quarantine norms after agreeing to adhere to them shows that she has no respect for legal obligations..However, on June 25, the Court granted Sultana anticipatory bail, with the caveat that it is not quashing the proceedings under Section 482 CrPC..[BREAKING] Kerala High Court grants anticipatory bail to Lakshadweep filmmaker Aisha Sultana in sedition case [READ ORDER]