A Delhi High Court’s bail order should become mandatory reading for police and judicial officers everywhere, especially given these times where free speech is shackled in chains at the slightest pretext . While speedily freeing a professor of History at Delhi University who was unjustifiably arrested for a social media post on the Gyanvapi mosque controversy, the magistrate’s order enunciated and dwelt upon extensively on what constitutes free speech i.e. that another person’s view may offend you but that most certainly doesn’t mean that person has committed an offence. Extraordinarily the educationist was booked under IPC section 153 A which pertains to ‘promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion’ on an arbitrary complaint filed by a local lawyer. The police are wilfully blurring communal fault lines and seem all too willing to create a crime where none existed to please their political masters using draconian tools like the sedition law, the blasphemy law, UAPA, etc. While a citizen’s right to report a crime is sacrosanct , the police’s job is to do due diligence. Courts have to adopt higher standards before jailing citizens if the police can’t do so.
