Supreme Court says if citizens don't value of freedom of speech, state will step in

The Supreme Court today asked why citizens don't restrain themselves from making derogatory comments. "Freedom of speech and expression is a very important fundamental right..abuse of that freedom is leading to litigation and clogging courts..there are other cases which police can attend to..", a bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and KV Vishwanathan said.

Court was hearing the petition filed by Wajahat Khan, the main complainant in the case against social media influencer Sharmistha Panoli over her videos on Operation Sindoor. His arrest was recently stayed by the court. 

Khan, who has already been arrested by Kolkata Police, was protected from being arrested in FIRs registered against him in Assam, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Delhi and Haryana.

Today, the counsel for State of Assam told the bench that Wajahat had tweeted that all persons worshipping Kamakhya Devi are sick.

"Citizens must know the value of freedom of speech and expression..If they don't, then state will step in...My learned brother rightly said there should be fraternity between citizens then all this hate will come down..", the bench went on to note.

Top court while issuing notices to the Union government and the states of Assam, Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra and West Bengal, asking them to respond to Khan's plea for consolidation of FIRs registered against him had taken strong objections to Khan's tweets, and said that hate speech wont' take us anywhere.

Interestingly, Khan had filed a complaint against Panoli for alleged hate speech in a post she had made. Later, posts made by Khan surfaced wherein he allegedly hurt religious sentiments by making unacceptable comments against Devi Maa Kamakhya and other Hindu deities. Kolkata police has booked Khan under Sections 196(1) (a), 299, 352 and 353(1)(c) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhitya.

Case Title: WAZAHAT KHAN vs. UNION OF INDIA