Social Media Posting Is A Fundamental Right; Govt Can’t Stop You From Posting On Facebook, Twitter

In a landmark judgment, High Court Judge has declared that social media posting is a fundamental right of every Indian citizen.

Police, and Govt officials cannot stop and prevent any Indian citizen from posting and sharing their views on social media such as Facebook, Twitter and others.

This verdict was announced in an interesting case which happened in Tripura.

Tripura Political Activist Arrested Over Social Media Posts

Few days back, Congress youth activist Arindam Bhattacharjee from Tripura posted some anti-Govt posts and comments, related to the ongoing Citizen Amendment Act protests.

In his Facebook post, he had objected to BJP led Govt. asking citizens to give a miss call to a number, to show support for CAA.

In this Facebook post, he said, “If you call 8866288662, all your data would go to hackers,” 

This irked BJP related online groups and they filed a case against Arindam with police.

In response, police him, and allegedly harassed him as wel.

The case reached Tripura High court.

Tripura High Court: Social Media Posting Is a Fundamenta Right

Responding to the plea by Arindam and his lawyers, Chief Justice Akil Kureshi from Tripura High court said that social media posting is a fundamental right of every Indian citizen.

He ordered the police to stop prosecuting Arindam due to his Facebook post.

As a result, police has removed Sections 120(B) and 153(A) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) from the FIR which was lodged against Arindam, and quashed the case.

Landmark Verdict By Tripura High Court?

This is seen by several activists, as a landmark verdict, which will have far reaching consequences.

In recent times, we have seen several instances, wherein several arrests were made based on social media posts or thoughts/views.

Even admis can be jailed, due to any news which is proved to be offensive, and Govt wants every social media user to be identified as well.

Under these circumstances, a verdict which supports freedom of speech of every citizen on the online platforms can alter several narratives.

We will keep you updated, as more details come in.