Madras HC dismiss case over Omar's Afzal tweet

Madurai: The Madras High Court today dismissed a petition for registering a case against Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah for his tweet on the issue of death sentence to Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru. Omar had tweeted two months ago that the response would not have been muted if the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly had passed a resolution for commuting the death sentence of Afzal Guru.[caption id=“attachment_123927” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. Image courtesy PIB”]  [/caption] His remarks had come in reference to a Tamil Nadu assembly resolution pleading for commuting capital punishment for three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. Quoting various Supreme Court judgements, Justice Chandru said “a citizen for propagation of his or her ideals has a right to publish for circulation his views in, magazines, and journals or through electronic media.” Justice Chandru said the petitioner did not clearly state as to how the statement attributed to Abdullah would amount to offences under IPC 124(A)(sedition) and 298(words uttered with deliberate intention to wound religious feelings) 505(1)(B)and C and(2) (statement promoting enmity). The judge said the petitioner had not filed appropriate complaint before the station house officer competent to register a case. If the SHO had failed to receive the complaint then he should have sent it to inspector general(south zone). Even in such cases, if no worthwhile action was taken, the petitioner had other remedies, like giving a magisterial complaint. The petitioner had not made prima facie case to show that it was statutory offence. “If we examine whether the ingredients of offences pointed out by the petitioner was found out in the impugned message posted in twitter, we can say that the message is not even remotely connected with or attract the ingredients of sedition act.” The petition was filed to get cheap popularity. Through filing frivolous petition,precious time of the court had been wasted, the judge said, dismissing the petition. PTI