Supreme Court quashes FIRs lodged by West Bengal police against ‘OpIndia’

“Journalists suffer consequences of what is otherwise in the public domain… Hope others would follow”, Justice Kaul remarked.

The bench, also comprising Justice M M Sundresh, was hearing a plea by ‘OpIndia’ editor Nupur J Sharma, her husband Vaibhav Sharma, portal founder and CEO Rahul Roushan and the former editor of its Hindi division Ajeet Bharti.

In June 2020, the SC had stayed three FIRs registered by West Bengal police in connection with some news stories published by the portal.

It said though other news outlets also carried articles on the subjects, police had singled out ‘OpIndia’ and the “authoritarian Kolkata police” was using the registration of FIRs as an excuse to “intimidate journalists” to seek deletion of online content and reports critical of the state government.

The police even questioned their family members, the counsel of the petitioners said, adding that despite repeated requests, the police had also refused to supply them a copy of the FIRs or upload the same on their official website.

They added that the state has “blatantly misused” police powers under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to “scuttle bonafide instances of journalism” thereby, violating the fundamental right to free speech.