The Supreme Court on Friday granted protection from arrest to Lucknow journalist Abhishek Upadhyay, who feared arrest after writing an article accusing the Uttar Pradesh government of caste bias.
A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and SVN Bhatti said that just because a journalist’s work is seen as critical of the government, a criminal case should not be registered against the author.
Hearing the petition filed by Upadhyay, the Supreme Court directed the Uttar Pradesh government to file its reply within four weeks.
The bench said, “Freedom to express one’s views is respected in democratic countries. The rights of journalists are protected under Article 19(1)(A) of the Constitution.”
Abhishek Upadhyay’s lawyer Anup Prakash told the court that his client has faced threats and abuses after the article titled “Yadav Raj vs Thakur Raj” was written by him.
Along with this, on the basis of a complaint, an FIR has been registered against him under sections 353, 197(1)(c), 302, 356 of the Indian Justice Code (BNS) and section 66 of the IT Act.
It was alleged by complainant Pankaj Kumar that Upadhyay’s article was hateful and against the unity of the country.
The Supreme Court also noted that the petitioner had also made Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath a party to the petition, but after the court’s advice, his lawyer agreed to remove the chief minister’s name.
The bench said that this petition has been filed due to the apprehension of arrest due to an article in which the caste status of officers posted in responsible posts in the state has been commented on.
Upadhyay had claimed in his article that during the tenure of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the dominance of Thakur (or Singh) community officials is increasing in the state administration.
He compared this trend with the tenure of former Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, when people from the Yadav community were seen in high positions of power.
The lawyer appearing for Upadhyay in the court said that the crimes included in the FIR lodged against his client could not be proved as the article was merely an expression of a journalist’s thoughts.
The names of officials concerned were also included in the article, including bureaucracy, police, chief minister’s office, district magistrates, police chiefs and chairpersons of various boards and commissions.
Upadhyay had raised questions on preference being given to a particular caste in all these appointments. On this the court ordered that no punitive action would be taken against the petitioner in relation to this article.
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