The Madhya Pradesh High Court has rejected the petition for anticipatory bail of cartoonist Hemant Malviya over an objectionable caricature of PM Modi and RSS. The cartoonist had posted the image on his Facebook page.
Denying Malviya’s petition for anticipatory bail, the single judge bench of Justice Subodh Abhyankar stated, “The applicant clearly overstepped the threshold of freedom of speech and expression, a custodial interrogation is needed in the case against him.”
Noting that the cartoonist Hemant Malviya had not only depicted PM Modi and RSS in an insulting manner, but also had dragged the name of Lord Shiva into it, the High Court added that the caricature was ‘sheer misuse of the freedom of speech and expression enshrined under Article 19 of the Constitution.’
The High Court added that the benefit of the Supreme Court’s Arnesh Kumar guidelines will not be available to the cartoonist Hemant Malviya, because he had clearly demonstrated his propensity to commit the said offence and to promote the same in future.
