Messages sent to IAS officer against tree cutting at Aarey not offensive: High court

Activists protest against Metro car shed, last year. Pic/Shadab Khan

Messages sent to an IAS officer opposing the cutting of trees in Mumbai's Aarey Colony for the construction of a Metro Rail car shed were not offensive, but were assertion of a democratic right of a citizen of this country to put forth his view to object and protest, the Bombay High Court has said.

A division bench of Justice Sunil Shukre and Justice Milind Sathaye noted that registering a first information report (FIR) for such an offence would amount to an invasion on the rights of citizens of this country.

The bench on April 5 quashed a January 2018 FIR registered at Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) police station against Avijit Michael, a Bengaluru resident, for allegedly sending offensive messages to IAS officer Ashwini Bhide, who at the time was heading the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL), and for allegedly obstructing her from discharging her public duties.

The court in its order said the intention of the sender of these messages appears to be to protect the forest, which he considers to be acting like lungs for Mumbai.
"These messages do not contain any offensive material or any obscenities. Rather, they appear to have been sent in assertion of a democratic right of a citizen of this country to put forth his view point, to object, to protest, to persuade, to urge, and so on," the court said.

If anybody is booked for criminal offences such as those as have been registered against the petitioner, it may amount to an invasion upon the rights of the citizens of this country, the court said.

The police upon receiving such a complaint, howsoever high he or she may be in position, must never book any ordinary citizen of the country under criminal law, it added.

"...and if it does, it would be like suppressing his voice against what he considers to be a wrongful thing," the court said.

Police officer warned

The bench while quashing the FIR issued a warning to the police officer concerned. "The investigating officer, who registered the crime against the petitioner, is hereby cautioned to be careful in registering crimes in such matters in future," the court said.

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The bench in its order noted that the allegations made in the FIR, when taken at their face-value, do not, in any manner, constitute the offence punishable under section 186 (obstructing a public servant in discharging their public duties) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the provisions of the Information Technology Act for sending offensive messages.

"It is necessary that there must be a public servant who is voluntarily obstructed by another in discharge of his public functions and such obstruction must have direct connection with the discharge of public functions of such public servant," the court said.

The bench noted that it is for the public servant who has been obstructed in discharge of his public functions to voluntarily come forward and allege the obstruction.

2018
Year the FIR in the case was filed

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