Be more responsible: SC tells BJP’s Prashant Umrao over ‘Bihar …
The Supreme Court on Thursday asked Uttar Pradesh BJP spokesperson and advocate Prashant Umrao to tender an unconditional apology over his tweet on alleged attacks on Bihar migrants in Tamil Nadu.
Umrao had obtained anticipatory bail from the Madras high court on March 21. (PTI file image)
The content of the tweet was later found to be untrue, and it was deleted but the Tamil Nadu police had already lodged a case against him. Umrao had obtained anticipatory bail from the Madras high court on March 21. He had filed separate petitions before the top court challenging the anticipatory bail conditions and seeking clubbing of all similar FIRs in the state related to his deleted tweet.
Also Read: UP BJP spokesperson booked in TN over 'migrant workers being killed' tweet[1] Issuing notice on his petition to club FIRs, a bench of justices BR Gavai and Pankaj Mithal observed, "We don't know why people get so touchy (over tweets) and ordered that the anticipatory bail obtained by Umrao will be applicable to any of the FIRs registered in Tamil Nadu in connection with the same tweet. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi was appearing for Tamil Nadu along with state additional advocate general Amit Anand Tiwari.
Rohatgi said, "He is a member of the bar with sufficient standing. You do not expect a responsible member of the bar to make such tweets. There could be riots because of these tweets."
"He should be more responsible," the bench remarked and asked senior advocate Siddharth Luthra appearing for Umrao to tender[2] an apology before the next date. Luthra said that Umrao had simply forwarded the tweets published by certain media handles and deleted them when there was an issue of accuracy. Luthra also argued the other petition where he sought modification of the anticipatory bail condition requiring him to appear before the investigating officer twice daily for 15 days.
The Court modified the condition and directed Umrao to appear at the concerned police station on Monday and thereafter as and when required by the investigating officer. Rohatgi said that the petition filed by Umrao alleged political vendetta by the state claiming that the FIR was lodged by the state as he belonged to the opposite political party. The state informed the Court that pursuant to the order of March 21, Umrao did not appear once before the police and was yet to file an affidavit recording an undertaking not to tweet or forward messages that promote enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, language, place of birth or residence.
The FIR against Umrao was filed under Sections 153 (intent to cause riot), 153A (promoting enmity), 504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace) and 505 (statements aimed at public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
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- ^ UP BJP spokesperson booked in TN over 'migrant workers being killed' tweet (www.hindustantimes.com)
- ^ Umrao to tender (www.hindustantimes.com)