New Delhi: The Delhi Press Patra Prakashan has filed a writ petition in the Delhi high court on Wednesday, March 13 seeking quashing of the Union government’s order to take down The Caravan’s article on allegations of torture and murder against the Indian Army in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district.
In its petition, The Caravan has underlined that the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting’s order violated the fundamental right to free speech and expression and the freedom of the press under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India and the right to equality under Article 14.
The procedure adopted by the ministry also violated the principles of natural justice as The Caravan was not provided a copy of the complaint, or the allegations made therein, the petitioner wrote.
Further, The Caravan pointed out that the impugned order failed to show any incorrectness or error in the article in question but only ordered removal based on “its incorrect subjective reading”. It also noted that the order was devoid of any reasoning and could not show how its claim that the piece had negative impact on communal harmony, sovereignty and integrity of India, security of the state or public order was valid.
The petition mentioned that the requirements of necessity and expediency under Section 69A have not been established by the ministry while issuing the order. Notably, it also pointed out that proper and effective opportunity to rebut the allegations was not provided to The Caravan during a hearing, which lasted only for 30-35 minutes.
Also read: The Caravan’s Article on Army Torture the Union Government Wants Taken Down
“Without providing the materials relied upon, the hearing was rendered a meaningless empty formality. The impugned order has thus gravely violated the free speech right of the petitioner as it is an unreasonable, excessive, and arbitrary restriction of the freedom of the press. The procedure adopted by the respondent has also violated the fundamental right to equality by violating the principles of natural justice,” the petition mentioned.
Timeline of events
February 1, 2024: The Caravan magazine published a long form story titled ‘Screams from the Army Post’ on the incidents of abduction, torture and custodial killings of civilians at the hands of the officials of the 48 Rashtriya Rifles counter-insurgency force of the Indian Army on December 22, 2023 in Poonch and Rajouri districts of Jammu and Kashmir. A video story related to the article was also posted by The Caravan on YouTube. After its publication, social media posts promoting the article and video story were posted on X (formerly called Twitter) and Instagram.
February 9, 2024: The Caravan received a notice from the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting under the IT Rules intimating that a complaint had been received by the ministry regarding the ‘Screams from the Army Post’ article and social media posts as they were “detrimental to sovereignty & integrity of India, security of the State, and have the potential to lead to communal tensions leading to disturbance of public order in the U.T. of Jammu and Kashmir”. A representative from The Caravan was asked to be present for an online meeting with the inter-departmental committee on February 12 at 12 pm.
One of the urls complained of was posted on X on February 4, 2024 and was related to the ethnic cleansing in the state of Manipur (article published in August 2023 issue) and was not related to the Jammu and Kashmir piece.
February 11, 2024: In response, the editorial manager of The Caravan sent a letter denying the allegations against the article and social media posts. The manager also sought the complaint made against the article on the basis of which the proceedings had been initiated, as well as the procedure that would be followed by the inter-departmental committee.
February 12, 2024: During the meeting, the committee members said the urls in question should be pulled down.
The Caravan representative was neither supplied a copy of the request/complaint nor provided the details of the complainant, the allegations therein, or which specific portion(s) of the article which was detrimental to the sovereignty and integrity of India, security of the state, and had the potential to disturb public order. The main issue raised by the committee was that the article lacked an official response from the Indian Army on the incident.
The Caravan representative pointed out to the committee that the Army had not offered a response to the author despite being requested for interviews and being supplied with a questionnaire and that the online version of the article would be updated if a response was received even after publication. Further, the representative mentioned that there was no official denial or rebuttal of any of the contents of the article by any government agency.
On the same day, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting exercised its power under Rule 15 of The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 [“IT Rules”] and issued an order directing the magazine to take down the article from its website, and certain URLs of social media posts posted from The Caravan’s social media handles disseminating the article. The order underlined that the website and social media links had the potential to lead to communal disharmony and uprising against the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir and were detrimental to sovereignty and integrity of India, security of the state, and public order in the country.
