Snehal Upadhyay-
The Supreme Court dismissed a PIL filed against Congress for creating a toolkit to defame PM Narendra Modi on the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Apex Court while dismissing observed that a political propaganda ‘toolkit’ cannot be banned in a democratic country like India.
A division bench comprising DY Chandrachud and MR Shah said that the Court cannot pass any such order to ban the toolkit.
Advocate Shashank Shekhar, representing the petitioner’s reportedly said that including Singapore many other countries had to put up a ban on toolkits, the bench responded that India is a democratic country and it cannot be done in a democratic country.
“If using of toolkit results in violation of any law then remedy lies under criminal law and the court cannot pass an order in a PIL,” the Court said.
The petitioner sought an investigation done by the National Investigation Agency into the controversy in front of the Court and pleaded to Court to restrict people from using pictures of dead bodies and funerals of Covid victims.
“Portraying an anti-national stance including the usage of photos of funerals and dead bodies, naming of mutants after India and the PM and calling out a single religion for Covid-19,” said the petitioner.
The petition says that the toolkit matter should be investigated in order to disclose offences under Section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Section 120B (Criminal Conspiracy) and other sections of the Indian Penal Code.