New Delhi: The Allahabad high court has quashed the NSA detention of a man over a Facebook post on the Babri Masjid citing the Union government’s delay in processing it.
Bar and Bench has reported that a division bench of the high court comprising Justices Ramesh Sinha and Saroj Yadav said that Mohammad Faiyyaz Mansuri’s detention under the National Security Act was justified.
The court, however, highlighted that the Union government’s delay in disposing of Mansuri’s representation was disproportionate.
“…[W]e are of the view that the plea of the detenue/petitioner that there is delay in forwarding the petitioner’s representation on the part of the respondent no.1 (Union of India), has substance and on this count alone, the impugned detention order is liable to be quashed,” the court said.
The post
Mansuri had, in a Facebook post, written that the “Babri Masjid will be rebuilt like the Hagia Sophia in Turkey.”
“Babri maszid ek din dubara banai Jayegi, jis tarah Turki ki Sofiya maszid banai gai thi,” Mansuri had written.
The Babri Masjid was demolished by Hindutva groups in 1992, and the landed was handed over to the Ram Temple trust by the Supreme Court in a 2019 judgment.
Turkey’s decision to convert the Hagia Sophia from a museum to a mosque came in 2020. The 900-year-old Byzantine church was turned into a mosque in 1453, became a museum in 1934 and then a mosque last year, under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In August 2020, one Sagar Kapoor filed a complaint against Mansuri’s post and a case was registered under Section 67 of Information Technology Act and sections 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence), 292 (sale, etc., of obscene books), 505 (2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of Indian Penal Code.
In the FIR, four persons were named as accused and the main accused was one Samreen Bano, who allegedly made abusive comments under the post.
Eventually, sections 292 and 509 were dropped and Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) was added.
Mansuri was detained and jailed, following an order by the District Magistrate of Lakhimpur Kheri. Mansuri argued in his habeas corpus petition that Bano has not been arrested till date.
‘Provocative post’
The court held that Mansuri’s post was “provocative”, strikes at the root of the states’s authority and is directly connected to the public order, reported Bar and Bench.
The high court also said that the Indian constitution’s guarantee of freedoms and personal liberty to all people should not be “misused.”
“However, it should be kept in mind by one and all that the constitutional guarantee of such freedoms and liberty is not meant to be abused and misused so as to endanger and threaten the very foundation of the pattern of our free society in which the guaranteed democratic freedom and personal liberty is designed to grow and flourish,” the order said.
‘Delay’
But the court took into account Mansuri’s plea that the government’s affidavit “did not contain a day-to-day explanation while dealing with the petitioner’s representation between October 25, 2020 to November 11, 2020.”
LiveLaw has reported the court as having noted that the government had received his representation on October 12, 2020, but processed it on October 21, 2020.
Further, while Mansuri’s representation was rejected on November 13, it was communicated to him only on November 17, the court said.
“Having regard to the nature of detention and rigour of law, we are of the view that there was a disproportionate delay at the end of the Central Government,” the court said