Nishka Srinivas Veluvali
Published On: December 22, 2021 at 20:41 IST
The Madras High Court dismissed the Case booked opposing a man for his harmless social media post and stated that India has many “holy cows” at which fun and mockery is not entertained and National Security is the “ultimate holy cow” around the country.
The Court was observing the Case of a man named Mathivanan, who works as office-bearer at the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). The Tamil Nadu Police filed a FIR against the latter following his Facebook posts with the caption “Trip to Sirumalai for shooting practice.”
The Tamil Nadu police had Charged the provisions of Indian Penal Code that is pertaining to arms with an intent of waging war against the government, criminal conspiracy, causing fear or alarm among the public and criminal intimidation.
To which the Madras High Court responded that it was a total abuse of the whole legal process and quashed the first information report.
“Any normal and reasonable person coming across the Facebook post would have laughed it off”, Justice GR Swaminathan stated.
Justice Swaminathan also asserted that he would amend the Constitution to also include a fundamental “duty to laugh” while referring to the satirists and cartoonists Jug Suraiya, Bachi Karkaria, EP Unny and G Sampath.
The Court observed that Mathivanan was seen alone in the photos he posted with no weapons or unlawful object recovered from him. The Court quizzed the police on how can the latter be Accused of Criminal Conspiracy as he being a sole Accused person.
Justice Swaminathan contended, “To constitute the offence of conspiracy, there must be two or more minds’ meetings, one cannot conspire with oneself.”
The Court observed that there are many holy cows gazing all over from Varanasi (UP) to Vadipatty (TN) and these cows vary from region to region. However, the only cow that is ultimate all over India is “national security.”