Synopsis: On Friday, the Supreme Court refused to consider a petition seeking orders from the Chief Minister of Delhi to curb the distribution of religious-based data on COVID-19 cases through various modes.
The Supreme Court refused to grant a petition for the issuance of guidelines banning and preventing the dissemination on the basis of faith, caste, culture and religious affiliation or religious group on the basis of religious or communal classification of information or data related to Coronavirus disease or other epidemic.
The Bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah observed that the grievances presented in the petition were already taken care of. The Court was also not inclined to hear the instant plea.
However, the Advocate for the petitioner tried to emphasise that this petition was brought before the Supreme Court to prohibit the Chief Minister of Delhi from ‘communalizing the monitoring of COVID-19 incidents’ in his official capacity through different means, including the official Twitter handling of the CMO.
In contrast to the cases seized by the Supreme Court, which fell within the field of information and broadcasting, this case relating to the Information Technology Act was meant to be highlighted.
The issue dates back to the beginning of this year’s COVID-19 outbreak in India in March and the holding of the Markaz by a religious organisation named the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi’s Nizamuddin.
The epidemic caused national headlines with news reports supposedly communalizing the disease and showing in a misleading light the Muslim community. The petition averred that such reporting had earned support from the Chief Minister of Delhi, who had used his official Twitter account as a medium.
While arguing the matter before the Court, the petitioner’s counsel argued that the right to dignity of individuals was affected by such reporting.
However, the Court was not inclined to deal with this case on the basis that the Court had already given multiple directions on the matter and that the grievance was adequately taken care of, making the petition in question irrelevant.
Petitions still concerning the question of the communalization of the Markaz case remain pending before the Court. In this case, the petitioner requested that this plea be tagged with the pending cases. The request was, however, rejected as not necessary.
In its order, the Court stated that the petitioners had already filed a writ petition in the High Court, which was dismissed on 20.04.2020, on the basis that similar petitions had already been seized by that Court.