Petitions in SC seek immediate restoration of Internet at farmers’ protest sites

A petition has been filed before the Supreme Court in the backdrop of farmers protests seeking immediate restoration of internet at Singhu, Ghazipur and Tikri and also praying for directions to media houses against spreading "hate news" targeting Sikh community.

The petitioners, advocates Sanpreet Singh Ajmani and Pushpinder Singh have submitted that they are "aggrieved by the propaganda and hate news being published by some of the news channels (like AajTak, Republic Bharat, ABP news etc.) and over the social networking sites (like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram etc.) spreading hate against the entire Sikh community."

Referring to the Republic Day chaos at Red Fort when certain persons had stormed the monument and erected a ‘Nishaan Sahib’, the plea states that the alleged acts were committed by few elements, but the entire Sikh community is being blamed, criticized and defamed by some of the news channels for their unlawful gains and oblique motives, as per a report carried by Bar & Bench.

On the similar subject, a letter petition too has been moved before the Supreme Court by advocates Sitwat Nabi and Abhisht Hela.

The letter plea by Nabi states that Order issued by the MHA regarding suspension of internet was "bad in the eyes of law and will not hold water when put to test of ‘Wednesbury Principle’, i.e., Principle to test the Unreasonableness of the any legal document, which scratches the Fundamental Constitutional values."

The ‘hate news’ published by them has been causing irreparable loss and injury to the entire Sikh community, the plea by Ajmani claims.

The plea further states that the order issued by Ministry of Home Affairs suspending internet in border areas of Delhi where farmers are protesting, is a gross misuse of power by the Central government and is causing disruption to individuals in exercising their fundamental rights under Article 19 (1) (a) as upheld in the Supreme Court judgment of Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India.

"These are colossal damages against the sheen of a democratic country and history will not forgive us if, we remain mute spectators to this. As internet services remain suspended in and around the Singhu Border protest venue for the fourth consecutive day, farmers are apprehensive that their voices are being shunned down and only one-sided narrative of the government is getting brought forward, which is a clear attack on the fundamental values of the Constitution," it has been submitted.

The petitioners have specifically prayed for a direction from the court to remove iron nails and cemented barricades at the protests sites. They have sought directions to ensure uninterrupted internet access at Singhu, Ghazipur, Tikri where the famers are protesting.

The petitioners have also sought a judicial inquiry to ascertain whereabouts of missing farmers and ‘atrocities’ committed upon farmers.