Allahabad High Court stays arrest of retired IAS officer booked for Tweet on COVID-19 management in Uttar Pradesh

The Allahabad High Court has stayed the arrest of Surya Pratap Singh, a former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, who was booked for posting certain photographs on Twitter in relation to COVID-19 management in the State (Surya Pratap Singh v. State of UP)..A Bench comprising of Justices Ramesh Sinha and Jaspreet Singh, directed police authorities not to take take any coercive action against the accused and stayed the arrest."Till the next date of listing or till submission of police report under section 173 (2) Cr.P.C., if any, before the Competent Court, whichever is earlier, the arrest of the petitioner- Surya Pratap Singh, under Sections 153, 465 and 505 of I.P.C., Section 21 of the Uttar Pradesh Public Health and Epidemic Diseases Control Act, 2000, Section 54 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and Section 67 of the Information Technology as Amended Act, 2000, Police Station, Kotwali, District Unnao shall remain stayed of course subject to the restraint that the petitioner shall fully cooperate with the investigation and shall appear as and when called upon to assist in the investigation," the order said. A First Information Report (FIR) was registered against Singh, for a ‘tweet’, which he posted on May 13. It was alleged that the photographs attached to the tweet were from 2014 and were deliberately used to spread hatred and resulted in spreading tension among different sections in the locality.He was charged with offences under Sections 153 (act with intention to cause riot), 465 (forgery) and 505 (public mischief) of Indian Penal Code..The counsel for the petitioner, Amrendra Nath, argued that the petitioner is a responsible citizen and he never intended to spread any rumour or panic among people through his tweet. Instead, the objective of the tweet was that bodies of dead persons be treated with respect and be cremated as per religious rituals. It was also argued that FIR was an attempt to throttle the voice of dissent and impinged upon freedom of speech and expression. It was also pointed out that the National Human Rights Commission had taken cognizance of the burial of dead bodies and dead bodies floating in river Ganga and issued notice to the State Government. .Further, the petitioner's counsel submitted that since the representative photographs though real could be misused, he had immediately deleted the tweet in larger interest of public. .Reliance was also placed on an order of the Supreme Court in the suo motu case on COVID-19 (Re: Distribution of Essential Supplies and Services During Pandemic) in which the top court had said that no coercive action should taken for reporting and ventilating the grievances regarding COVID-19 on social media. .After considering the submissions of the parties, the court said that a case for interim relief was made out and stayed the arrest..[Read Order]