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Synopsis

The Allahabad High Court recently quashed criminal proceedings against a man who was booked under the IPC and Section 67 of the IT Act solely for ‘liking’ a social media post that was alleged to have incited an unlawful public assembly.

The bench of Justice Saurabh Srivastava, while deciding an application under Section 482 CrPC filed by Imran Khan, held that merely liking a social media post does not amount to publishing or transmitting it—and therefore, cannot attract punishment under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2008.

Khan had approached the court seeking to quash a charge sheet dated April 6, 2021, and the ensuing criminal proceedings against him. He had been accused of sharing objectionable content on social media that purportedly incited a gathering of 600–700 individuals from the Muslim community in Agra in 2019, leading to charges under Sections 147, 148, 149 IPC, Section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, and Section 67 of the IT Act.

The cybercrime cell had initially reported that no objectionable content was found on Khan’s Facebook account. The prosecution, however, contended that the applicant had deleted the posts and that the content remained in circulation through WhatsApp and other platforms.

Referring to the legal threshold under Section 67—which penalizes the publication or transmission of obscene material—the court underlined that the provision is limited to content that is “lascivious” or appeals to “prurient interest.” Importantly, it clarified that provocative or inflammatory content, even if proven, would not fall under the scope of this section unless it is obscene in nature.

The court emphasized that liking a post is not the same as publishing or transmitting it. “A post or message can be said to be published when it is posted, and transmitted when it is shared or retweeted,” the judge noted. “Merely liking a message published by someone else will not attract penalty under Section 67 of the IT Act or any other criminal offence,” he held.

While the prosecution leaned on an earlier Madras High Court judgment which held that forwarding a message implies acknowledgment and acceptance of its content, the judge pointed out the lack of any direct precedent equating a ‘like’ to criminal intent or action.

The high court also cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in Kaushal Kishor v. State of U.P., where it was observed that while freedom of speech must be exercised with restraint, that alone cannot criminalize expressions that don’t fall within the ambit of penal law.

“No offensive post is available in the Facebook and WhatsApp accounts of the applicant,” the court concluded. “Therefore, no case is made out against him,” it held.

Accordingly, court allowed the plea and quashed the case. Though the court clarified that proceedings against the co-accused may continue if no legal impediment exists.

Case Title: Imran Khan Vs. State of U.P. and Another