The award-winning long-form magazine, The Caravan, has moved the Delhi High Court challenging an order from the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, directing to take down a story published on February 01 about the “Indian Army’s torture and murder of civilians” in Jammu.
The article titled ‘Screams from the Army Post’ from The Caravan’s website, and certain URLs of social media posts posted from its social media handles disseminating the article were removed after an ultimatum by the ministry, accusing it of having the “potential to lead to communal disharmony and uprising against the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir”.
The petition, accessed by Maktoob, seeks the quashing of the order dated 12 February issued under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 [“IT Act”] in the exercise of the power under Rule 15 of The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 [“IT Rules”].
The petition, filed on February 28, said the order “violates the fundamental right to free speech and expression and the freedom of the press under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India and the right to equality under Article 14”.
The article was published in the February magazine issue and written by journalist Jatinder Kaur Tur. It was a deep dive into the killing of three civilians allegedly by Indian soldiers on December 22, 2023, which had been widely reported. Videos of civilians being tortured had gone viral and the Indian government announced compensation to the families of the slain.
The report also said that while three men had been killed, about 25 people had been picked up by the Army and severely tortured.
In an notice issued on 09 February, the ministry asked a representative from The Caravan to be present for an online meeting with Inter Departmental Committee regarding a complaint against the report.
The petition said that the representative was neither supplied a copy of the request/complaint, nor provided the details of the complainant or the allegations. It also stated that no proper and effective opportunity to rebut the allegations provided was provided during the hearing which lasted 30-35 minutes.
“Without providing the materials relied upon, the hearing was rendered a meaningless empty formality,” it added.
“Impugned order fails to show any incorrectness”
According to the petition, before the publication of the article, The Caravan had sent detailed questionnaires to the Army, Ministry of Defence, Director General of Police, Senior Superintendent of Police, and the District Deputy Commissioner, regarding the incident and allegations of torture, seeking their responses.
“No responses or denials have been received from them so far,” the plea claims.
The publication also points out that one of the URLs was a post that was not concerned with the Army article or this incident of torture in Jammu, but related to an earlier article published by The Caravan on Manipur.
The magazine said that the impugned order fails to show “any incorrectness or error in the article” but resorted to “incorrect subjective reading”. It also said the twin requirements of necessity and expediency under Section 69A have not been established by the Committee that issued the order.
“Incidents reported in the article are based on extensively gathered facts, oral testimonies, medical evidence, and publicly available information, not denied by the army or any other government agency,” the petition reads.
