Supreme Court grants interim protection to journalist in UP police FIRs over article on caste discrimination

The Supreme Court today granted temporary protection the other journalist criticized for her article(s) alleging caste discrimination in the Uttar Pradesh government administration.

A bank of Judges BR Gavai, Prashant Kumar Mishra and KV Viswanathan passed the order in favor of journalist Mamta Tripathi, against whom 4 FIRs are said to have been registered. The Court also called upon the UP government’s response to Tripathi’s plea seeking quashing of the criminal proceedings initiated against her.

Dictating the order, Minister Gavai said: “Issuance of notice, returnable in 4 weeks… however, it is ordered that no coercive measures be taken against the petitioner in relation to the articles in question”.

It may be recalled that another journalist, namely Abhishek Upadhyay, recently requested the Supreme Court to quash an FIR registered by the UP Police over a story that explored caste dynamics in the Uttar Pradesh State Administration. On October 4, the Court granted him provisional protection, noting that criminal proceedings cannot be brought against journalists just because their writings are considered critical of the government.

“In democratic nations, the freedom to express one’s opinions is respected. The rights of journalists are protected by Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India. Just because a journalist’s writings are seen as criticism of the Government, crimes cases should not be struck against the writer”, a bank of Judges Hrishikesh Roy and SVN Bhatti observed in their order.

Senior Advocate Siddharth Dave, appearing before Mamta Tripathi, alleged that 4 FIRs have been registered so far and the Court has granted stay of 1 FIR, as a result of protection granted to journalist Abhishek Upadhyay. He insisted that this is a case of pure harassment, as whenever journalists tweet something, be it about District Magistrates using red lights in their vehicles, or about caste issues between Thakurs and Brahmins, FIRs are registered against them.

When Justice Gavai asked why the petitioner directly approached the Supreme Court, the senior lawyer replied that Upadhyay also approached it directly and the same is being done as it is the case of the petitioner-journalists that there has been a violation of their fundamental rights.

Finally, the Bench issued a notice to the UP government and granted interim protection to Tripathi in respect of 6 articles written by her.

Case Title: MAMTA TRIPATHI v. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH, WP(Crl.) No.