The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice on a writ petition challenging the FIRs registered by the Tripura police over the reports on communal violence in the state.
The plea has been filed by media company Theos Connect (which operates the digital news portal HW News Network), two of its journalists Samridhi Sakunia and Swarna Jha, and its Associate Editor Arti Ghargi.
The bench headed by Justice D. Y. Chandrachud also stayed all further proceedings pursuant to the FIRs dated 14.11.2021 and 18.11.2021.
Four weeks’ time is granted for filing the counter-affidavit, with liberty to the petitioners to serve the standing counsel for the state of Tripura.
Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra, for the petitioners, submitted, “The journalists were picked up and then there was the FIR. They have now been granted bail. But another FIR is also registered. The difficulty that is faced is that you report the news, 1 FIR is registered, and then you register a second really to say that we have now established that in the first FIR, the journalists are wrong. This is really untenable and not justified.”
Hearing this, Justice Chandrachud ordered, “We will issue notice in this matter. Stay of all further proceedings pursuant to 14.11.2021 FIR at Tripura.”
Tripura police registered the FIR alleging that the reports of the journalists promoted enmity between groups and spread communal hatred by publishing baseless news about communal violence.
