Tripura violence: SC asks Tripura police to ‘stop harassing people’ over social media posts

The Supreme Court pulled up Tripura police on Monday for notices sent to activists over social media posts related to the violence that took place in the state last year, Live Law reported. This comes despite an interim order passed by the court on January 10.

The report states that the court warned the police that if they did not refrain from harassing people over their social media posts, then it would ask for the presence of the superintendent of police and the home secretary of the state.

The matter came up when a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant was hearing an application filed by activist Samiullah Shabir Khan against Tripura police’s notice seeking his appearance under Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the report said.

While reprimanding the police, Justice Chandrachud said, "Once we have passed an order covering an issue, albeit in one case, you must show the responsibility, some deference to the court! Otherwise, we will call the superintendent of police to us if he is trying to evade complying with the order by issuing all these kinds of notices to others! We will ask all to remain present, including the home secretary! There is no other way."

Following the order, solicitor general Tushar Mehta said he would “will look into it” and “ensure that the sanctity of your lordships' orders is ensured in letter and in spirit”.

According to the report, advocate Shahrukh Alam who appeared on behalf of the petitioner said that the interim order had been widely reported by the media and despite that the SP had issued a notice for appearance.The interim order had stayed Tripura police’s notice to Twitter which sought the removal of tweets by Khan and also his IP address and phone number.

Alam also said that the order had not been physically served to the SP. In response, the bench dictated that no further actions were to be taken in relation to the Section 41A order. “Since the petitioner has already been protected by the previous order of this court dated 10 January 2022, no further steps shall be taken in pursuance of the notice under section 41 A, pending further orders.”

Alam also mentioned that similar notices had been issued to others and asked for the court to grant them protection as well since they had also filed a writ petition but were “scrambling” to get an urgent listing.

Justice Chandrachud directed Alam to send an email to the court master with diary numbers of the petitions so that an urgent listing could be granted and told the state counsel to “inform your SP to not harass people like this. Why should everybody be required to run to the Supreme Court?"