The Caravan moves Delhi High Court against order to take down story on alleged Army torture in J&K

The Delhi High Court recently issued notice the Central government on a plea filed by news magazine, The Caravan, ordering it to take down the story on allegations of torture and murder by Indian Army personnel in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district [Delhi Press Patra Prakashan Private Limited v Union of India]..Justice Subramonium Prasad heard the matter on March 7 and ordered the government to file its reply within four weeks.The matter will be heard next on May 9. .As per the plea, the government had ordered the magazine to remove ‘some articles’ and 11 URLs from its website..The Caravan had published a story on February 1, 2024 titled “Screams from the Army Post: The Indian Army’s torture and murder of civilians in a restive Jammu”.It was written by the journalist Jatinder Kaur Tur and included interviews with the family of a purported Intelligence Bureau (IB) informer in the region, who was picked up for questioning by the Army after the meeterrorist attack in Poonch on December 22, 2023.The terrorist attack killed four Army personnel and the informer died shortly after being picked up.News reports revealed that soon after the terror attack several civilians were picked up and of these, three had died. The Caravan article alleged that “Blood money” was paid by senior military officials to the family of the IB informer after his body was returned to them..On February 9, The Caravan received a notice from the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting informing that a complaint had been received regarding its story and social media posts and that they are detrimental to sovereignty and integrity of India, security of the State, and have the potential to lead to communal tensions leading to disturbance of public order in the Jammu and Kashmir.Subsequently on February 12, The Caravan’s representative took part in an online inter-departmental committee meeting. On this day, the ministry asked the media platform to take down the story and several social media posts..Senior Advocate Chander Uday Singh along with advocates Harsh Bora, Maulshree Pathak, Amjid Maqbool, Viddusshi, Bidya Mohanty and Katyayani Shurud appeared for The Caravan.Union of India was represented through Central Government Standing Counsel (CGSC) Apoorv Kurup and advocate Akhil Hasija..[Read Order]