The court granted him 10 days time to publish the apology on all his social media handles, including Facebook and Instagram.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Indore cartoonist Hemant Malviya to publish his apology across all social media platforms over an offensive Facebook post depicting the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an undignified manner.
The court made the observations while hearing Malviya’s anticipatory bail plea in the case being probed by the Madhya Pradesh police over his 2021 post on Facebook. Last month, the top court had granted him protection from arrest.
A bench of justices Aravind Kumar and NV Anjaria said, “Our attention has been drawn to an affidavit dated August 16 where under the petitioner has tendered a whole hearted apology which we hope and trust is not from the pen but from the heart.” The court granted him 10 days time to publish the apology on all his social media handles, including Facebook and Instagram.
Malviya, represented by advocate Vrinda Grover, said that in the apology, the petitioner said the post was not intended to offend any organisation or individual. She also offered to delete the post from all the social media platforms of the petitioner.
The state objected to the latter request pointing out that the post is a subject matter of investigation and should not be deleted. Additional solicitor general (ASG) KM Nataraj appearing for the MP police told the court that a direction be passed not to delete the post till investigations are complete. He further requested the court that Malviya should cooperate with the probe.
The court posted the matter after 10 days to monitor the publication of the apology and to pass further orders.
The MP Police began probe against Malviya on a complaint filed by Vinay Joshi, a lawyer and an RSS member in May this year. He claimed that Malviya’s cartoon posted on Facebook was “offensive”, “obscene”, and “indecent” which hurt Hindu religious sentiments and damaged the RSS’s image.
The Madhya Pradesh Police booked Malviya under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita’s sections 196, 299, and 352 for allegedly harming communal harmony, hurting religious feelings, and under the Information Technology Act.
During investigation, the state found out similar offensive posts by the petitioner, one against the judiciary as well.
The court had earlier taken exception to these posts and had remarked, “Sadly, today, all sorts of things are happening. Look at the language being used. Anything is being said about anyone.”
Malviya claimed that his original cartoon was posted in 2021 and the complaint has been made against the reposts made by people who are strangers to him. He alleged that his cartoon was used in reposts and objectionable words added to it to which he had no role.
Earlier, the Madhya Pradesh high court dismissed his anticipatory bail plea on July 3 against which he approached the top court. The top court while issuing notice on his plea last month observed that the cartoon was in “bad taste”.
Even the high court while denying relief to Malviya, observed that he had misused the freedom of speech and expression enshrined in the Constitution under Article 19(1)(a). The HC further said that Malviya’s deliberate and malicious post was intended to outrage religious feelings by insulting religion, which is prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony in society.
