Saurabh Malik
Chandigarh, October 12
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday quashed an FIR against BJP leader Tejinder Singh Bagga asserting that the continuation of criminal proceedings would amount to an abuse of the process of law.
Bagga’s stand in the matter was that the registration of the FIR against him was to wreak vengeance through politically motivated criminal investigation by using the state machinery for political gains. Contending that the only allegation against him was that he had made a statement during political debates on the electronic media, Bagga had submitted that a perusal of the FIR would reveal that no case had been made out in “respect of the sections invoked in the FIR”.
Justice Anoop Chitkara asserted that the court had seen all the tweets and posts placed on record by the parties. There was no allegation that the petitioner had posted such tweets by entering the state of Punjab, or any incident had taken place within its territories due to such a tweet. Every post of the petitioner would not give territorial jurisdiction to the state of Punjab to investigate in the guise of the present FIR, it was said.
“Had the investigating agency of another state been given that much leverage, it would impact the federal structure under the Indian Constitution, where every state has the right to maintain law and order within its territorial boundaries.
“Even otherwise, a perusal of such tweets shows that same are part of a political campaign. There is nothing in the investigation that the petitioner’s statement created or would have created any communal hatred. Thus, even if all the allegations made in the complaint and subsequent investigation from social media posts are true and correct at face value, they would not amount to a hate speech, and no case against the petitioner is made out,” Justice Chitkara added.
Bagga was represented by senior advocates Randeep Singh Rai and Chetan Mittal with counsel Gautam Dutt, Anil Mehta, Mayank Aggarwal and NK Verma.
