The Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Wednesday refused to quash a first information report (FIR) lodged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against a lawyer for his social media posts. The court said lines such as “slaves of the Government of India” or “they [the people] are under occupation of armed forces of the country” are not protected by the right to freedom of expression.
“The first post quoted indicates that the petitioner advocates that the people of Kashmir are slaves and it [J&K] is under occupation which is like a cancer...the petitioner is advocating that this part of the country is under the occupation of the Indian military. In my opinion, 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,” Justice Sanjay Dhar observed.
The judge held that by uploading these posts, the accused had “crossed the Lakshman Rekha”, which demarcates the freedom of expression guaranteed under Article 19 of the Constitution of India from the reasonable restrictions imposed on such freedom on the grounds of India’s sovereignty and integrity.
