Keywords: Gujarat High Court, Afsalbhai Kasambhai Lakhani vs State of Gujarat, PM Modi, Facebook
Recently, while hearing the case of Afsalbhai Kasambhai Lakhani vs State of Gujarat, the Gujarat High Court denied bail to the person accused of posting objectionable content about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his mother on Facebook.
While it’s okay to like or dislike the prime minister, according to the single judge bench of Justice Nirzar Desai, one shouldn’t speak negatively about him.
“One can understand that a person may have like or dislike against any person but it does not mean that he may start using derogatory and abusive language for the Prime Minister of the Country and his late mother. Therefore, only general observations are made by this Court rather than reproducing the contents of any of the posts. On overall consideration of the material, this Court has found that the present applicant who is an Indian citizen has made all the attempts to destabilize the peace in the society,” the Court said.[1]
The material posted by the accused contained objectionable statements about the PM and his late mother, not only that but one of his Facebook pages, against a political party contained pornographic material. He had also put many pro-Pakistani and anti- India posts.
The court concluded that the posts proved to be prima facie of the accused’s agenda.
Written by- Satyanshu Sharma, 2nd year student at Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law Patiala, Intern at Legal Vidhiya
[1]BAR AND BENCH, https://www.barandbench.com/news/one-might-like-dislike-pm-narendra-modi-should-not-use-derogatory-language-gujarat-high-court (last accessed on 10th June, 2023).
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