Supreme Court: In a batch of criminal writ petitions filed under Article 32 of the Constitution of India by Himanshu Kishan Mehra, producer of Amazon Prime Video’s web-series Tandav; Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Actor and Aparna Purohit, Head of India, Amazon Prime Video, for issuance of a Writ of certiorari to quash the complaints and First Information Reports (‘FIR’) filed against them at various police stations, the Division Bench of B.R. Gavai and J.B. Pardiwala, JJ., directed the respondents to file a status report pertaining to the present status of the various FIRs filed against the petitioners.
Background
The 9 episodes long web-series Tandav was in controversy for allegedly hurting the religious sentiments of a particular section of the audience for portraying Hindu Gods in bad light. The makers of the web-series were accused of provoking communal tensions and clashes between the casts by its controversial dialogues. Several FIRs were registered against the makers, producers and actor of the film at various police stations around the country such as Hazratganj; Rabupura, Greater Noida; Katra, District Shahjahanpur; Omti, Jabalpur; Ghatkopar, Mumbai, a complaint dated 20-01-2021 was also filed in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Another complaint was filed in case titled Vishnu Gupta v. Ali Abbas Zafar dated 18-01-2021 before the Patiala House Court, New Delhi, wherein it was alleged that the makers of the film had intentionally made the said web-series and released on OTT platform to promote enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and outraged religious feelings of Hindus, committing offences under Sections 153-A, 295-A, 505(1)(b), 505(2), 34 of the Penal Code, 1860 and Sections 66 and 67-A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Some of the dialogues which led to these FIRs and complaints were:
“Bholenath, you are very innocent, do something new, Infact tweet something new, something sensational, some flaming blaze, like (Thinking) Yes, “All students of Campus became traitors, they are raising slogans of freedom-freedom” and,
“When a man of a lower caste dates a woman of a higher caste, he is taking revenge for the centuries of atrocities from that one woman.”
The petitioners were also seeking issuance of the writ of mandamus to the effect that no cognizance of any complaint would be taken by any Court, nor any FIR would be registered by the police, or any criminal proceeding would be initiated on the cause of action of the present Writ Petition. The petitioners also sought clubbing of the said FIRs and to have them transferred to Mumbai.
In the previous Order of the Court dated 27-01-2021, the Court had dismissed the petition regarding the quashing of the FIRs, however, for the prayer regarding the clubbing and transfer of the FIRs, the Court had issued notice.
Court’s Order
The Court had directed the respondents to file a status report pertaining to the present status of the various FIRs within three weeks from the date of the said Order. The matter was also adjourned for hearing after four weeks, i.e., in august.
With Inputs from the Press
[Himanshu Kishan Mehra v. State of Uttar Pradesh, 2023 SCC OnLine SC 781, order dated: 05-07-2023]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the Petitioners: Advocate on Record Pragya Baghel, Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra, Advocate Ruby Singh Ahuja, Advocate Saikrishna Rajagopal, Advocate Sidharth Chopra, Advocate Deepti Sarin, Advocate Monica Datta, Advocate Sneha Jain, Advocate Swikriti Singhania, Advocate Nitin Sharma Advocate Ashutosh P. Shukla, Advocate Vasu Singh, Karanjawala & Co., Advocate Sameer Chaudhary, Advocate on Record Supriya Juneja, Advocate Arjun Aggarwal;
For the Respondents: Additional Solicitor General Of India Suryaprakash V.raju, Advocate on Record Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, Advocate Zoheb Hussain, Advocate Kanu Agrawal, Advocate Annam Venkatesh, Advocate Sairica Raju, Advocate Varun Chugh, Advocate Bhuvan Kapoor, Advocate Dr. N. Visakamurthy, Senior Additional Advocate General Garima Prashad, Advocate on Record Ruchira Goel, Advocate Adit Jayeshbhai Shah, Advocate Priyanka Swami, Additional Advocate General Saurabh Mishra, Advocate on Record Sunny Choudhary, Advocate Sandeep Sharma, Advocate on Record Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, Advocate Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Advocate Bharat Bagla, Advocate Sourav Singh, Advocate on record Nikhil Goel, AOR;
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