Telangana High Court: In the present writ petition filed under Article
Background
The present petition was filed by several Congress workers, namely Manne Sathish, Asma Tasleem, Ambala Shiva Kumar, Pettam Naveen, Koya Geetha, and Pendyala Vamshi Krishna, who had been accused of sharing a doctored video of Union Minster Amit Shah regarding reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs.
The petitioners contented that a case is already registered against them with Delhi Police’s Special Cell (‘Special Cell’) in the aforesaid matter and a subsequent case is brought by one Shinku Sharan Singh. Therefore, they sought for directions to the Delhi Police to not register any complaint with regard to the same set of facts and allegations which had already been registered against them.
Order and Analysis
Upon perusal of the petition and affidavit filed and hearing the arguments, the High Court issued a notice to Delhi Police to show cause as to why the instant writ petition should not be admitted. It also allowed personal notice to be sent to Shinku Sharan Singh for the same and directed him to showcause on or before 12-06-2024.
Moreover, the notice issued by the Special Cell in furtherance of the subsequent case filed against them was found to be untenable as the petitioners were already named accused for same allegations in another similar case. Therefore, interim relief was granted directing the respondents to refrain from taking any coercive steps against the petitioners. The Court also clarified that the instant order would not come in the way of the police in conducting investigation in this regards.
The matter is adjourned till 12-06-2024 to allow the respondents to file their responses.
[Manne Sathish v. The State of Telangana, 2024 SCC OnLine TS 829, order dated 03-05-2024]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the Petitioners: Thoom Srinivas, Advocate
