Supreme Court Rejects Plea to Quash Case Over Alleged Facebook Post on Babri Masjid
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday (October 27) refused to quash a criminal case lodged against a man who was booked over his alleged 2020 Facebook post on Babri Masjid, which said “Babri Masjid will one day be rebuilt, just like Turkey's Sophia Mosque”, LiveLaw reported.
An FIR was lodged against the aggrieved petitioner, Mohd Faiyyaz Mansuri on August 6, 2020. He was subsequently arrested on August 8, following which the National Security Act, 1980, was invoked against him.
On Monday, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi dismissed the plea to withdraw the complaint, after hearing advocate Talha Abdul Rahman, appearing for Mansuri.
The counsel argued that there was no vulgarity in the petitioner's post and that it was a “mere expression of hope and opinion”. The counsel also submitted that another person had published a vulgar and inflammatory comment but they were not investigated.
Mansuri’s plea said that pursuant to the posting on Facebook, his Facebook ID “got hacked and the post was edited without his knowledge and without his consent. On the… post there were comments by others including one Samreen Bano,” who allegedly made an indecent comment on gods and goddesses of the Hindu community.
It added that there “is proof that no such person as ‘Samreen Bano’ existed”, and that one Ritesh Yadav was operating the account by changing his username to implicate the petitioner. Despite these findings, no proceedings were pursued against the said individual, while the petitioner alone continues to face prosecution, the plea stated, as reported by The Indian Express.
It added that the post was made “in exercise of the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression enshrined in the Constitution”.
Justice Kant, unconvinced by the argument, said that the bench had gone through the petitioner's post. "Don't invite any comment from us", he cautioned.
The matter was disposed of with the bench’s observation that all contentions raised by the petitioner shall be considered by the trial court on their own merit.
Mansuri said in his plea that he was in jail till September 2021, when the Allahabad high court had quashed a detention order by the district magistrate, Lakhimpur Kheri, against him under the National Security Act.
However, earlier this year, the Lakhimpur Kheri additional chief magistrate summoned him in connection with the case on July 3.
The trial court took cognisance of the chargesheet filed against Mansuri, pursuant to which, he approached the Allahabad high court for quashing the case again.
In September, the high court refused to allow his prayer, but ordered an expedition of trial. Following this, Mansuri approached the Supreme Court.
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