The Allahabad High Court said in a decision that it is not like a post -like, publishing or transmitting posts on WhatsApp or Facebook, so just a post will not apply Section 67 of the IT Act to apply to it which would apply to the publication of porn or objectionable materials.
With this comment, Justice Saurabh Srivastava canceled a criminal case against a person named Imran Khan in Agra district.
The court said, “From the facts recorded in the record, there is no such message available in the record that nature can be inflammatory and just like a message will not apply Section 67 of the IT Act.”
The petitioner had filed this petition in the Allahabad High Court under Section 482 (the inherent powers of the High Court) of the CRPC, demanding the cancellation of the case against him. A case was registered on the petitioner to like Chaudhary Farhan Usman’s post.
Usman’s post was associated with collecting people with the Collectorate to give a memorandum to the President. Imran Khan was booked for “provocative message on social media” as about 600-700 people from the Muslim community gathered after reading this message to take out a procession without permission.
The court said, “Section 67 of the IT Act is for pornographic materials and not for inflammatory materials.”
During the hearing, the petitioner’s counsel said that no such material was found on his client’s Facebook account. However, the police said that Imran Khan had erased him, but similar materials were found on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.
In its decision on Thursday, the court said, “After hearing the argument of the lawyer and seeing the records, I did not find any material that connects the petitioner with an objectionable post.”
