Delhi High Court slaps ₹30k costs on SpiceJet passenger for false hijack claim on X

The Delhi High Court recently imposed costs of ₹30,000 on a flight passenger for wrongly posting about his flight being hijacked in a tweet on X tagging the Civil Aviation Minister.

Justice Saurabh Banerjee was hearing a petition filed by the passenger, one Moti Singh Rathore, seeking quashing of the criminal proceedings initiated against him over the tweet.

In 2023, a SpiceJet flight flying from Dubai to Jaipur was diverted to Delhi due to severe bad weather, which caused a 6 hour delay. This prompted Rathore to express his exasperation on social media. He allegedly inadvertently wrote “SG 58 Dubai to Jaipur high jacked” and tagged the Civil Aviation Minister on his X post. 

Thereafter, the passenger clarified the tweet and apologised for using “hijacked” word falsely. In the following tweets, Rathore blamed his limited knowledge of English language and his frustration due to flight delay for the mistake on X.

“I apologise that I have mistakenly used high jacked word…Mujhe English kam ati ha galti se high jacked likh diya asal me flight Late ho gai thi or gussa agya,” Rathore wrote in following tweets.

An FIR registered was registered against the passenger under Sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 505(1) (b) (public mischief by spreading alarming rumour) and 507 (criminal intimidation by anonymous communication) of the Indian Penal Code 1860.

Counsel appearing for the passenger argued that he had no intent to trigger public panic with his tweet and the mistake was due to his inability to correctly articulate his grievance in English on X.

The Court considered the background of the petitioner, his command on English language, young age and clean past criminal record. 

“No doubt, the act of the petitioner may have led to serious repercussions, however, what entails, there was no untoward incident resulting therefrom,” the Court stated.

The Court also took into account the situation he was under due to the flight diversion and delay. It also observed that the passenger soon himself realised his mistake and corrected himself in less than an hour.

In the order passed on August 4, the Court quashed the FIR registered against the passenger on the condition that he pays costs to the Delhi High Court Staff Welfare Fund within 2 weeks.

Advocates Asad Iqbal and M Abuzar appeared for the petitioner.

Standing counsel Anand V Khatri appeared for the Delhi Police.

[Read order]