The Allahabad high court stayed the arrest of Gaurav Bharti alias Gaurav Kumar, a student and member of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), following an FIR registered against him by the Uttar Pradesh Police for recording a video showing the state of a government primary school in Farrukhabad district.
Citing Supreme Court precedents on free speech, the petitioner submitted that continuing the FIR without the essential elements of the offences constitutes an abuse of the process of law. Hearing the writ petition, a division bench comprising Justice Salil Kumar Rai and Justice Padam Narain Mishra issued an order on September 22 directing the state government to file its reply. In the petition, Bharti challenged the FIR registered on August 19 under Sections 352 and 353 of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 66 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, at Nawabganj police station in Fatehgarh district. The petition stated that the right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) includes the right to communicate views on “matters of legitimate public concern.
The petitioner said the video highlighted water accumulation in the school, which left children without sitting space and led to holidays. The petitioner submitted that the video was created and published “in good faith to highlight the condition of a public educational institution and matters concerning the welfare and facilities of children”.
