Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 25: Justice Sanjay Dhar of Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh High Court ruled that the freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under the Constitution cannot be stretched to such a limit as to allow a person to question the status of a part of the country or its people.
The court underscored that it is one thing to criticize the Government for its negligence and express outrage on the violation of human rights of the people, but it is quite another to advocate that the people of a particular part of the country are slaves of the Government of India or that they are under occupation of armed forces of the country.
“While the expression of outrage at the negligence and inhuman attitude of the security forces, police and establishment would come within the ambit of freedom of expression of an individual, which includes freedom to criticize the Government of the day which is permissible under law, but the same may not be the position if an individual questions the fact of a State being a part of the country by using the expression ‘occupation of military or the people being slaves etc,” the court said.
Justice Sanjay Dhar passed these observations while dismissing plea of a lawyer, Muzamil Butt challenging FIR registered against him for uploading social media posts regarding a bomb blast at a gunfight site at Laroo village in Kulgam on October 21, 2018, during which six civilians were killed and more than 60 persons including men, women and children were injured.
The petitioner advocate, who is practicing at District Court Kulgam for last 10 years, while terming the incident as “Karbala in Laroo” had wrote in a long thread “genocide and mayhem in my native hamlet Laroo. One of the most intense gunfights in my village culminated into mass massacre, bloodshed, cries, wailings, and brutal carnage. A military operation culminated into an organised State negligence which led to killings of eight teenagers and injuring 60 others.”
He had said in his English post: “For the first time in my life, I felt broken and weak and I could acknowledge that we are slaves and slaves have no life of their own.”
While quoting, Ph D Scholar, Dr Manan Bashir Wani, who later turned militant and was killed in an encounter in 2018, he said: “Occupation is like a cancer which will consume everyone of us.”
In another post, the petitioner while commenting on Dr Wani said” “Manan’s finger on trigger is more than the mechanism that sets off the firing action of a gun. It is not an isolated incident. It reflects the culmination of systemic failure. It reflects on those heartless structures that celebrate occupation of military bonhomie in cozy champagne circuits and page three parties of Gupkar.”
After taking note of the posts uploaded by the petitioner, the Police Station, Kulgam booked him for offences punishable under Section 13 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (ULAP).
The court noted that the petitioner, who happens to be an advocate, can very well understand the import of these expressions.
By making these comments, Justice Sanjay Dhar recorded, he is certainly advocating and supporting the claim that J&K is not a part of India and that it is occupied by Indian military with the people having being reduced to the status of slaves. “Thus, he is questioning the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country,” the court observed.
“This act of the petitioner, therefore, prima facie, falls within the definition of ‘unlawful activity’ as contained in Section 2(o) of the ULA(P) Act punishable under Section 13 of the Act,” the court said while dismissing the plea to quash the FIR.
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