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Arnab Ranjan Goswami v. Union of India

Writ Petition (Criminal) · 2020 INSC 400Decided 19 May 2020
Writ Petition (Criminal) No. 130 of 2020
Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud · Justice M.R. Shah

Background

A television news channel editor faced fifteen separate FIRs and criminal complaints across several states after a broadcast about the Palghar mob-lynching incident, with complainants alleging the broadcast was communal and defamatory. The petitioner argued the multiple complaints, filed almost simultaneously in states ruled by one political alliance, amounted to a coordinated, vexatious campaign to harass him and chill press freedom, and sought quashing of all FIRs plus protection from arrest.

Decision Breakdown

The Court held that successive FIRs/complaints founded on the very same cause of action (the single broadcast) are not maintainable, relying on its earlier T.T. Antony precedent, and accordingly quashed fourteen of the FIRs/complaints while allowing investigation to continue only on the one FIR already transferred to Mumbai for consolidated investigation. It clarified the investigation could not travel into criminal defamation under Section 499 IPC. It declined to quash the Mumbai FIR itself or stop that investigation, holding that the journalist's remedy was to seek quashing before the appropriate High Court, but extended protection against coercive steps (arrest) for three weeks to allow him to pursue that remedy, and left directions for police protection at his residence and workplace. A connected writ petition (Diary No. 11189/2020) was dismissed with liberty to pursue other remedies.

Lesson Learnt

A person cannot be made to answer identical criminal allegations in FIRs lodged in multiple states for the same speech or act: the law requires such proceedings to be consolidated into one investigation, though the underlying investigation itself is not thereby halted; interim protection from arrest can still be granted while the person pursues the normal legal route (such as an anticipatory bail or quashing petition) in the proper court.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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