SC refuses to entertain plea to curb dissemination of COVID-19 data "on the basis of religion", says grievances sufficiently taken care of

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a petition which sought directions to the Chief Minister of Delhi to curb the dissemination of data on COVID-19 cases based on religion through various modes.

. The Bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah noted that the grievances raised in the petition are already and sufficiently taken care of. Therefore the Court was not inclined to entertain the instant plea.

. The Counsel for the petitioner sought to highlight, however, that this petition was moved before the Supreme Court to prevent the "communalization of reporting of COVID-19 cases" by the Chief Minister of Delhi in his official capacity through different modes including the official Twitter handle of CMO.

. This case pertained to the Information Technology Act as opposed to the cases that the Supreme Court is seized of, which fall within the Information and Broadcasting domain, it was sought to be highlighted.

. The issue dates back to the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in India in March this year and the holding of the Markaz in Delhi's Nizamuddin by a religious organization called the Tablighi Jamaat.

. The issue had made national headlines with news reports allegedly communalizing the disease and exhibiting the Muslim community in a negative light. Such reporting, the petition averred, found support from the Chief Minister of Delhi, who had used his official twitter handle as a medium.

. "...such reporting has triggered communal antagonism and has also perpetrated hatred, resulting in fissiparous tendencies gaining foothold, undermining and affecting communal harmony by the State /CM itself/himself." . While arguing the matter before the Court, the Counsel for the petitioner submitted that the right to dignity of the people was affected through such reporting. The petitioner added that diseases do not have a religion, remarking that one cannot say there is "Muslim Tuberculosis or a Christian cancer".

. However, the Court was not inclined to entertain this matter on the grounds that several orders have already been passed by the Court on the issue and the grievance is sufficiently taken care of, rendering the instant petition redundant.

. There remain pending petitions before the Court also touching upon the issue of the communalization of the Markaz event. The petitioner in this case sought for this plea to be tagged with the pending cases. However, the request was denied as being "not required".

. In its order, the Court said,

. "The petitioners had earlier filed a writ petition in the High Court which was dismissed on 20.04.2020 on the ground that this Court has already seized of similar issues, in Writ Petition (C) No. 10871 of 2020. We, therefore, are not inclined to entertain this petition. The writ petition is accordingly dismissed" . The petition was filed through Advocate Mohd. Irshad Hanif.

. Read Order:

SC refuses to entertain plea to curb dissemination of COVID-19 data "on the basis of religion", says grievances sufficiently taken care of

Shruti Mahajan

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