Plea in Bombay HC seeks contempt action against Rahul Gandhi, Uddhav Thackeray, Dhruv Rathee

The plea claimed that those who shared the news were habitual offenders of sharing false information on their social media handles and sought action against them for spreading false narratives and conspiracy theories

A criminal writ petition has been filed in the Bombay High Court seeking contempt proceedings against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders Uddhav Thackeray, Aditya Thackeray, Sanjay Raut and YouTuber Dhruv Rathee. The petition claimed that the said persons allegedly interfered in a sub-judice matter by sharing a news article about alleged hacking of electronic voting machine (EVM) through one-time password (OTP) after the recent Lok Sabha election, which was a fake news.

When the petition was listed before a Division Bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Shyam Chandak, advocate Nilesh Ojha, representing the petitioner, said the plea was wrongly listed before the Bench, but it was to list before Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya. To this, Justice Dere directed the Registry to place the petition before an appropriate Bench.

The petition filed by the Indian Lawyers and Human Rights Activists Association from Mumbai’s Bhandup area alleges that Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena leader Ravindra Waikar won from Mumbai North-West seat in the Lok Sabha election by a margin of 48 votes. Later, an FIR was registered against Mr. Waikar’s relative for using a mobile phone during the vote counting and this incident was published in a city-based English daily and Marathi newspapers stating that the EVM machine was unlocked by an OTP. A day later, a press note was issued by the Election Commission and the Mumbai police stating that the news articles were false and to this, the newspapers had issued a corrigendum.

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“Despite the newspapers issuing apology for the story, this news report was shared by Mr. Rathee, Mr. Gandhi, Mr. Uddhav Thackeray, and Mr. Raut on their social media handles such as X, creating a false narrative about the issue,” the petition said.  

The plea claimed that those who shared the news were habitual offenders of sharing false information on their social media handles and sought action against them for spreading false narratives and conspiracy theories and interfering with the investigation and due process of law.

The respondents in the case were in violation of the Bombay High Court order in Nilesh Navalakha vs Union of India, 2021 that had specifically declared that the media trial and an attempt to interfere or prejudice the pending investigation or sub-judice case were an offence of criminal contempt punishable under Section 2(c) of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, the petition read.