Today, On 11th July, Cartoonist Hemant Malviya approaches the Supreme Court for anticipatory bail after the Madhya Pradesh High Court rejected his plea over allegedly objectionable Caricature targeting the Prime Minister and RSS.
Indore-based cartoonist Hemant Malviya has sought anticipatory bail from the Supreme Court in response to allegations that he depicted the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an “undignified” manner.
A bench comprising of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi heard the matter.
Advocate Vrinda Grover presented the plea before the bench , who agreed to schedule a hearing for July 14.
Advocate Vrinda Grover stated,
“The High Court order condemns me. It says Arnesh Kumar will not apply, 41-A will not apply and Imran Pratapgarhi will also not apply.”
She continued,
“This is about a cartoon I made back in 2021 during COVID. The offence is under BNS and maximum 3 years of punishment.”
Previously, the Madhya Pradesh High Court had denied Malviya’s request for anticipatory bail.
Malviya was charged in May following a Facebook post that was considered objectionable by an RSS member.
The cartoon showed a man in RSS khaki shorts bending over with his dress pulled down, while Prime Minister Modi was shown with a stethoscope and an injection, about to inject the person. Many saw this as a disrespectful and degrading representation of both RSS and the PM.
In a ruling dated July 3, Justice Subodh Abhyankar of the MP High Court remarked that Malviya had abused his freedom of speech and should have exercised more discretion in creating the caricature.
The court stated,
“He has clearly overstepped the threshold of freedom of speech and expression and does not appear to know his limits,”
Earlier, The Court also called for his custodial interrogation.
The High Court further asserted,
“In the considered opinion of this court, on the face of it, the conduct of the applicant in depicting the RSS, which is a Hindu organisation, along with the Prime Minister of this country in the aforesaid caricature, coupled with his endorsement of a rather demeaning remark, dragging unnecessarily the name of lord Shiva in the comments tagged to it, is nothing but the sheer misuse of the freedom of speech and expression as enshrined under Art.19(1)(a) of the Constitution, and falls under the definition of offence as contended by the complainant.”
Malviya’s lawyer told the Court that the cartoon was meant as satire and argued that Supreme Court guidelines against unfair or arbitrary arrests were not being followed by the authorities.
But the State, on the other hand, said that the freedom of speech cannot be misused to insult respected institutions or leaders in such a vulgar way.
After hearing both sides, the Court said that Malviya had shown the intention to repeat such acts in future too, and so he did not deserve any legal protection under anticipatory bail.
Case Title: Hemant Malviya vs The State Of Madhya Pradesh