By Abu Zaim
New Delhi: A PIL filed on Friday before the Supreme Court seeking to quash the First Information Reports (FIRs) registered against Fareeda Begum, headmistress of Shaheen Primary School, l the mother of a student, Najibunnisa and the management of Shaheen School in Bidar, Karnataka. The petition argued that the Karnataka police failed to distinguish between academic discourse and sedition in a free country. It also sought to constitute a committee to scrutinize complaints under 124A (Sedition) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) before registration of an FIR.
The case has attracted national and international attention and the arrests as well as the charge of sedition were widely condemned by human rights activists and opposition party politicians.
However, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in Karnataka State, including Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Bidar district-in-charge Minister Prabhu Chauhan had justified the police action and the charge of sedition.
It is to recall that the Karnataka police had registered sedition case was registered against the headmistress and teacher of Shaheen school for allegedly allowing students to stage a play criticizing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the National Citizenship Register (NCR) and the National Population Register (NPR).
The Headmistress of the school and a student’s widowed mother were arrested by the state police on January 30 over charges of sedition and for provoking breach of peace. Further, the management of Shaheen School was also booked for ‘promoting enmity between different groups’ under Sections 124(A) and 153(A) of IPC.
The PIL was filed and drawn by Advocate Utsav Singh Bains. Advocate Naresh Kumar will appear on behalf of the petitioners. The petition also mentioned the chain of events that led to the arrest of the mother of the student.
“That according to a media report during interrogation, police officers asked the child as to who taught the specific dialogues. The child is said to have pointed to her mother, prompting the police to question the mother and arrest her. The mother, in her response, stated that she did not specifically teach the dialogues. However, the police arrested her.”
In this regard, the PIL contends that the police failed to distinguish between academic discourse and sedition in a free country.
“That despite well settled principle of law laid down by this Apex Court in plethora of judgments, the Karnataka Police failed to distinguish between the academic discourse/artistic endeavor and sedition in a free country and registered a sedition case against the minor school going children and their parents.”
To buttress its argument, the petitioner relied on a plethora of judgments to submit that freedom of speech and expression is fundamental to any democracy. On that point, the registration of the FIR on the basis of a play against the CAA is in violation of Articles 19(1) and 21 of the accused persons, the PIL argued.
“That in light of the above facts, the petitioner most respectfully submits that “freedom of expression” is supreme and prerequisite in a deliberative democracy which has been clearly violated by the State police authorities by lodging the FIR against school management and a widowed parent of a student who participated in a play “criticizing Citizenship Amendment Act, National Citizenship Register & National Population Register.”
It also pointed out the decision of Kedar Nath Singh v. State of Bihar, in which it was held,
“A citizen has a right to say or write whatever he likes about the Government, or its measures, by way of criticism or comment, so long as he does not incite people to violence against the Government established by law or with the intention of creating public disorder.”
Furthermore, the petitioner also referred to the case of Common Cause v. Union of India, in which the Apex Court held that charges of sedition cannot be invoked for criticizing the government.
In view of the above, the PIL sought to quash the FIRs. It also prays for a direction to the state to constitute a committee to scrutinize complaints under 124A (Sedition) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) before registration of an FIR.
Last week, the widowed mother and the Headmistress, who were arrested on charges of sedition by the Bidar Police, were granted bail by the Principal District and Sessions Court in Bidar.
Two days ago, the Karnataka government submitted to the Karnataka High Court that 17 students of Shaheen School in Bidar were “counselled” and not “interrogated” following an anti-CAA play at the school on January 21.
It is to mention here that petitions challenging the FIR against the Shaheen School teachers were also filed in the Karnataka High Court.