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| New Delhi |
Published: May 20, 2020 4:43:47 am
“The petitioner is a journalist of media. The issuance of opinions about the television programmes that he presents is in the exercise of their fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a),” the Bank said.
“India’s freedoms rest-assured, if and when journalists can speak truth to power without being chilled by a threat of retaliation” and “free citizens cannot exist when the media is shackled to adhere to a position,” the Supreme Court of justice said Tuesday.
The court confirmed its interim order cancelling all but one FIR against the Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami through a TELEVISION program on the 21st of April, in which he questioned the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi about the lynching of two sadhus and driver at Palghar in Maharashtra.
Ruling on a clutch of petitions, a Bench of Judges D y Chandrachud and M R Shah said that “all the other FIRs in connection with the same incident constitute a clear abuse of the process and must be overturned”.
The SC said Goswami could approach the High Court to make use of other resources, and extends the protection of the detention for more than three weeks.
The court said that “Article 32 of the Constitution is a recognition of the constitutional obligation entrusted to it” in that “to protect the fundamental rights of citizens” and added that “the exercise of journalistic freedom is located in the centre of speech and of expression protected by Article 19(1)(a)”.
“The petitioner is a journalist of media. The issuance of opinions about the television programmes that he presents is in the exercise of their fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a),” the Bank said.
The Bank, however, added that “the exercise of that fundamental right is not absolute and is liable to the legal regime enacted with reference to the provisions of Article 19(2). But to allow a journalist to be the subject of multiple complaints and the search of remedies that crossing several states and jurisdictions when faced with the successive Firs and complaints bearing the same foundation, has an inhibitory effect on the exercise of that freedom”.
“This,” he said that “effectively destroy the freedom of the citizens about the affairs of government in the nation, and the right of the journalist to ensure an information society”.
The court noted Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari’s words that “the questions that you cannot answer, in general, are much better for you than the answers you can’t question”.
The court said that any reasonable restriction of the fundamental rights “must adhere to the proportionality of the rule, of which one of the components is that the measure adopted must be the least restrictive measure to effectively achieve the legitimate state objective.”
“Subjecting an individual to a number of cases arising in different jurisdictions, on the basis of the same cause of action cannot be accepted as the least restrictive and effective method of…,” he said. The Bank marked the fact that the various complaints filed in connection with the April 21 incident, “the language, the content and sequence of the paragraphs and their numbering is identical”.
The court rejected Goswami of the request to cancel a subsequent FIR in connection with another TELEVISION program on the 29th of April, with regard to your comments about the migrant commotion outside Bandra station, April 14.
Goswami had tried to transfer the probe to CBI stating that he was questioned for almost 12 hours, that the chief financial officer of the channel was also questioned, and that irrelevant questions were put to them. He also stated that he had already paved the allegations against the state government failure to adequately probe the Palghar case, had a conflict of interest in allowing the Mumbai Police to investigate the case.
But the court said that the “power” for the transfer of investigation to CBI is “extraordinary”, and is to be used with moderation…in exceptional circumstances”.
The Bank noted that it had transferred the FIR on the April 21 show in Nagpur to Mumbai with Goswami’s consent, and added that “the petitioner now seeks to pre-empt an investigation by the Mumbai Police. The basis on which the petitioner intends to achieve this is unsustainable. The defendant does not have an option as to the mode or manner in which the research should be carried out or in respect of the investigating agency”.
“The line of questioning, whether of the petitioner or of the cfo can not be controlled or dictated by the persons under investigation/interrogation… The allegation of the petitioner that the length of the investigation or of the nature of the questions addressed to him and the cfo during the interrogation should be weighed in the transfer of the research can not be accepted. The investigating agency is empowered to determine the nature of the questions and the questioning period,” the court said.
The solicitor General Tushar Mehta had referred to a declaration of guilt on the part of the Mumbai Police seeking to curb Goswami, and a copy of the request for transfer of the probe to the CBI.
The SC dismissed the Mumbai Police’s plea, but, he added, “we can not access” that the guilty plea would require the transfer of the investigation to the CBI.
“The investigating agency has placed on the record of what he believes is an attempt by the plaintiff to discredit the investigation by recourse to the means of social communication and through the use of the news channels that he operates,” the Bank said.
“Social media has become a great presence in the society. To accept the tweets by the petitioner and the interview by the author as a justification to move to a lawfully constituted agency of research of its jurisdiction and its duty to investigate would have far-reaching consequences for the federal structure.”
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