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Synopsis

The Allahabad High Court recently quashed the chargesheet issued against a District Cane Officer in Uttar Pradesh Government who had tweeted a disrespectful tweet in reply to a tweet regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

The bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh noted that the petitioner had already tendered his unconditional apology and had also shown regret over his actions. Therefore, the single judge opined that continuation of the proceedings for the tweet was not required.

Court was dealing with a writ petition moved by one Asharfi Lal under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking a Writ of Certiorari quashing the memorandum/decision to contemplate for imposing a major penalty against the petitioner, for which the chargesheet dated March 6, 2023, was issued to the petitioner.

At present, the petitioner is working as District Cane Officer after he got promoted from the post of Senior Cane Inspector.

The facts of the case, in brief, were that the Prime Minister of the country recently praised the bureaucracy and administration of Uttar Pradesh and said that: "The bureaucracy and the administration of Uttar Pradesh have the strength that the whole country desires. As a parliamentarian, I myself have experienced this power".

The above sentence was tweeted by the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister's office, to which the petitioner tweeted:

"Bureau the Great!! There is so much power that even your orders are being defied by some officers. It has been more than 5 years for some officers in the same department but even you don't have the courage to remove them". (The tweets were in Hindi. They have been translated for reporting purposes.)

However, seeking relief before the high court, the counsel for the petitioner submitted that when the said sentence was tweeted, the petitioner was not in a good frame of mind. The petitioner has very deep regard and respect for the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, counsel for the petitioner informed the court.

Court noted that in pursuance of the previous order dated April 4, 2023, the petitioner had also filed an affidavit tendering his unconditional apology for the said tweet. Therefore, considering the regret and unconditional apology tendered by the petitioner in writing, court allowed the present petition. 

Case Title: Asharfi Lal v State of UP and 5 Others