Written by: Ishita Pal (Intern)
Edited by: Anubhav Yadav (Content Head & Developer)
Leichombam Erendro was arrested on the same day for his Facebook post on 13th May, 2021.Where he stated about the criticism done by him regarding the cow dung’s covid cure topic said by BJP politicians. According to the BJP politicians, it criticised extremely regarding the statement made on the context of the death of the president of the Manipur BJP, Prof. Tikendra Singh. After that, few BJP politicians filed a suit and the activist was arrested on the same day.
On Friday, the apex court adjourned the matter to September 17, the plea made by the father of activist Leichombam Erendro about the compensation for the detention of his son wrongfully under the National Security Act (NSA) for a Facebook post criticizing the cow dung as a path of covid cure.
For the shortage of time, the bench of Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice Vikram Nath & Justice Hima Kohli; under whom the matter was listed, disposed to post it for Monday.
For the respondents, SG Tushar Mehta said that the activist chose to come before Supreme Court after two months of being charged. After that, SG requested to adjourn the matter for next week.
For the petitioner, Advocate Shadan Farasat said about the inaccuracy of the statement of his learned solicitor and he also said it was not his choice to come before court after two months as he was doing representations to them however, they didn’t address his representations. Although, Adv. Shadan Farasat didn’t object the idea of two weeks adjournment.
Case Name: Raghumani Singh Vs District Magistrate of Imphal West in Manipur & Others
- MANIPUR GOVERNMENT’S REACTION
The Manipur government was opposing the plea of the father of the activist about the compensation seeking for the wrongful detention of his son under NSA for a Facebook post. The state government of Manipur stated through an affidavit that Erendro is a habitual offender and it was necessary to arrest him because he abused the position of a political activist. He has no particular right to criticize to the extent of the limit.
According to the article 21 of Indian constitution regarding the violation of the right regarding live and personal liberty, the court gave an order on July 19 to release him immediately before 5pm.
On the next day, when SG Tushar Mehta requested towards the bench to put the matter for rest, Advocate Shadan Farasat filed a habeas corpus petition regarding the release and seeking compensation as he mentioned that five cases were cited against him but none of them was filed as a charge sheet.
- RAGHUMANI’S PLEA
Mr. Raghumani, father of the activist, protested not only about the wrongful detention, also about the violation of the Supreme Court order dated 30th April, 2021 directly. The case was about the essential supplies and services’ distribution during pandemic, where the Supreme Court has directed that there should be no clampdown about the information’s on social media and no harassment can be done on the help delivered on social media for the good of the public. With this context, petitioner tried to say that the activist also wanted to correct or dispel the covid related information.
So, Mr. Raghumani filed a contempt petition before apex court regarding the violation of the order dated 30th April, 2021 by the district magistrate of Imphal west.