LEGAL NEWS
Allahabad HC quashes criminal proceedings against man over tweet on maid
A Single Bench of Justice J. J Munir passed this order while hearing an application u/s 482 filed by Tarun Jain.
The Allahabad High Court recently quashed criminal proceedings against a man who had tweeted that maids were entering his society without sanitizing their hands etc while noting that a vigilant tweet by the resident of society about the breach of the Covid-19 protocol can’t constitute a violation of prohibitory orders passed under Section 144 of CrPC.
A Single Bench of Justice J. J Munir passed this order while hearing an application u/s 482 filed by Tarun Jain.
The Application under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 sought to quash proceedings of Case under Sections 182, 188 and 271 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, pending before the court of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate-II, Gautam Buddh Nagar.
The application was initially heard on September 21, 2020, and an interim stay of further proceedings before the Magistrate was granted pending admission, for reasons indicated in the order of that date. Later on, the application came up on January 19, 2021, when, by a detailed order, it was admitted to hearing and notice was issued not only to the State, but also the second opposite party, requiring both these opposite parties to file a counter affidavit. The time-bound interim order granted on September 21, 2020 was directed to remain in operation until further orders.
The complainant-respondents, who is a Sub-Inspector of Police, and to whom notice was directed to issue, has not been served, with the Office not putting in a report either way. It is a little hard to believe that a Sub-Inspector of Police would not be served through the criminal process that is routed through the Police. In any case, the presence of the second opposite party is not much required in his case, instituted on a Police Report, where the State is before us.
The case against the applicant is that the second opposite party lodged a First Information Report with Police Station – Sector 49, NOIDA, District – Gautam Buddh Nagar to the effect that the informant, who is a Sub-Inspector and was on duty on March 25, 2020. A tweet by the applicant came to his notice, which said that maid servants and courier boys were entering the society, where the applicant resides, without sanitizing themselves and the maintenance staff have not provided for sanitizers to enable them to do so.