Naveen Kumar v. State of Karnataka
 In the High Court of Karnataka
Crl. P. 4072/2019
Before Justice S. Sunil Dutt Yadav
Decided on July 10, 2019

Relevancy of the case: Bail Application in a case involving uploading of defamatory and derogatory posts on Facebook

Statutes and Provisions Involved

• The Information Technology Act, 2000 (Section 67)
• The Indian Penal Code, 1860 (Section 354D, 509)
• The Code of Criminal Procedure,1973 (Section 438)

Relevant Facts of the Case

• The petitioner published a post on his Facebook account, which was allegedly derogatory and defamatory and contained objectionable language.
• Further, it was submitted that the petitioner, a journalist, posted this Facebook post as a reaction to the earlier post regarding the Prime Minister of India.

Prominent Arguments by the Advocates

• The petitioner’s counsel states that the matter is yet to be proved for which evidence can be obtained.
• The counsel further submitted that there is no need for custodial interrogation.
• The state counsel opposed the grant of anticipatory bail. He further contended that the petitioner used objectionable language in his comment. They also stated that a responsible journalist should exercise the right to freedom of speech in a correct way.

Opinion of the Bench

• The court was of the view that the Magistrate can try the offence and the Investigating Officer can gather the evidence that was available in the public domain.
• Hence, custodial interrogation is not necessary.

Final Decision

• Petition allowed.
• Bail application allowed.

This case summary has been prepared by Mehula Liza Pallathu, an undergraduate student at National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi, during her internship with The Cyber Blog India in May/June 2021.