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The Allahabad High Court has granted a stay on the arrest of the writers and directors of the Amazon Prime web series, 'Mirzapur' in relation to a case registered against them for allegedly hurting religious and regional sentiments through their portrayal of the town of Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh (Karan Anshuman & Ors. v. State of UP).
A Bench of Justices Pritinker Diwaker and Deepak Verma issued notice to State of Uttar Pradesh and granted protection from arrest to Karan Anshuman, Gurmeet Singh, Puneet Krishna and Vineet Krishna who were responsible for the writing and directing the two seasons of the web series.
They approached the High Court seeking to quash the FIR registered against them for offences under Sections 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of Indian Penal Code (IPC).
They also sought a stay on the investigation and proceedings arising out of said FIR.
The allegation in the FIR was that the web series portrayed the town of Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh in an indecent and improper manner.
The FIR was lodged on January 17 in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh based on a complaint by one, Arvind Chaturvedi who alleged that ‘certain’ contents in the series depicted the town of Mirzapur as anti-social and infested with crime. He alleged that the show promotes illicit relationships besides portraying a "polluted picture" of the legal and judicial system.
In challenging the FIR, the petitioners pointed out that the series is purely a work of fiction, which is also clarified by way of a disclaimer at the start of each episode. The said disclaimer also made it clear that the makers of the show respect all faiths and religions and that all places and events in the said series are completely fictional, the petitioners contended.
The petitioners stated that after interim protection was granted to Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar, the producers of the series on January 29, 2021, the investigating officers have now sought to expand the scope of the investigation by appending the names as the petitioners as accused in the present case.
"The impugned FIR is nothing but a cheap publicity stunt by the first informant (complainant) who is a local journalist in the city of Mirzapur and is seeking political favours from the ruling party. By losing the impugned FIR, the first informant is trying to score political mileage and the fact that the State government is hand in gloves with the first informant is evident from the fact that the FIR was lodged on 17.01.2021 and in a span of four days, on 20.01.2021, a team of police officers were rushed to Mumbai to investigate the matter," the plea said.
Senior Advocate Manish Tiwary along with Advocates Jay Kumar Bharadwaj and Syed Imran Ibrahim appeared for the petitioners.
[Read order here]
[Read Petition]