Himachal Pradesh High Court quashes FIR against Zee journalist who impersonated Donald Trump, Amitabh Bachchan for COVID e-pass

The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Wednesday quashed a First Information Report (FIR) against a Zee Media journalist who registered for an e-pass to enter the State under the names of Donald Trump and Amitabh Bachchan to show that they were being generated without verification [Aman Kumar Bhardwaj v. State of Himachal Pradesh]..Justice Vivek Singh Thakur opined that the petitioner's act was not committed with an intention to defraud, but was a reality check on the State's claim that e-passes would only be generated on proper verification. The order stated,"Petitioner never intended to use nor used these e-passes for entering in Himachal Pradesh. He brought this lapse in system to the notice of higher authorities. In given facts and circumstances it cannot be said an act done by the petitioner was with intent to defraud, therefore, it was not an act done ‘fraudulently'.".During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the State government had issued an order dated April 24, 2021 stating that all movement into the State shall be monitored. All persons desirous of entering the State had to register themselves on an online software and details of their arrival were to be shared with all concerned for the purpose of quarantining and contact tracing.On May 5, 2021, the State government came up with another notification imposing a 'corona curfew' from May 7. One of the guidelines imposed was registration on the e-pass web portal for any kind of inter-state movement.Consequently, journalist Aman Kumar Bhardwaj carried out an investigation to test the claims of the administration with respect to verification of registration of persons entering Himachal Pradesh. To this end, he filled two online registration forms on the portal for issuance of two e-passes in the names of Amitabh Bachchan and Donald Trump for entering the State of Himachal Pradesh, without citing any valid reason. As identity proof, he had used his own Aadhaar card number and telephone number.He said that the names of renowned personalities were used with the hope that they would definitely be taken note of by the authorities during the process of verification. The channel then ran a news story on this..Subsequently, an FIR was registered against Bharadwaj for cheating by personification, forgery, fraud and dishonesty under Indian Penal Code, Section 66(D) of the Information Technology Act and Section 54 of the Disaster Management Act. Aggrieved by this, Bharadwaj approached the High Court, claiming that his intentions were to unearth the truth and loopholes in the system behind the entire process of registration and in greater public interest..The Bench agreed with this submission and pointed that he had brought the discrepancies to the notice of the authorities. It held,"Petitioner had tried to raise alarm and warning to the authorities so as to improve the system to avoid disaster or to increase severity or magnitude of spread of Covid-19 Pandemic by restricting entry of unwanted persons in the State in terms of restrictions imposed by the State Government to take appropriate steps to improve in order to provide foolproof/flawless system." Noting that there was no sufficient material for lodging an FIR against him, the Bench called for the quashing of the same."It is apparent that allegations made in complaint/FIR even if they are taken at their face value and accepted in entirety do not, prima facie, constitute any offence or make out a case against the accused. Therefore, finding merit in the petition, FIR No. 51 of 2021, dated 7.5.2021 registered against the petitioner in Police Station East Shimla and consequential proceedings arising thereto, if any, are quashed.".The petitioner was represented by Senior Advocate BC Negi along with Advocate Pranay Pratap Singh. The State was represented by Additional Advocate General Hemant Vaid..[Read Order]