The Allahabad High Court on Thursday permitted The Wire founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan to travel to New York from September 28 to October 7.
Justice Chandra Dhari Singh passed the order on September 23 after Varadarajan tendered an unconditional apology for not surrendering his passport as ordered by the Court in 2020.
"This Court has also considered the fact that the applicant, present in Court, has tendered unconditional apology and has also given an undertaking to appear before the court concerned. The Court is of the view that, in the interest of justice, the apology deserves to be accepted. The delay/non-compliance for surrendering the passport, in terms of order dated 15.05.2020, is accordingly condoned," the Court ordered.
It added that Varadarajan has been on anticipatory bail in the case since 2020 and the reason for his travel to New York appeared to be genuine.
"There is no material on record to show that applicant will abscond, if permitted to travel abroad. The trial has not yet commenced in spite of the charge-sheet filed in the year 2020. Considering the facts and circumstances, I deem it appropriate to grant permission to the applicant to travel abroad," the Court said while imposing certain conditions on him.
The Court passed the order while dealing with Varadarajan’s application seeking clarification of conditions imposed while granting him anticipatory bail in 2020. However, he only pressed his request for permission to travel abroad at this stage, with his pleas seeking clarification or modification of the earlier bail conditions to be considered later. Varadarajan also said that he could not submit his passport on time because of the misinterpretation of the court's order.
The FIR was registered against Varadarajan at Ayodhya. It arose from a tweet by Varadarajan concerning a report published on March 31, 2020 about COVID-19 cases and a quarantine centre in Delhi.
Varadarajan said that the factual error in the report was corrected and the incorrect version deleted after it came to his knowledge.
The State of Uttar Pradesh opposed the travel request, alleging that several summons issued since 2020 had not been served and that Varadarajan had failed to deposit his passport as directed in the 2020 anticipatory bail order. It argued that these circumstances created an apprehension that he might not return to India.
After considering the case, the High Court allowed him to travel. It directed that he must appear before the trial court on October 12 and give his passport to the High Court within a week of returning from the US.
"In case applicant fails to return India within stipulated period, the State shall be at liberty to take coercive steps," the Court added.
Senior Advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan along with Advocates Amrendra Nath Tripathi, Harsh Vardhan Kediya, Surangama Sharma and Utkarsh Srivastava represented Varadarajan.
[Read Order]