In what could be a big setback for YSR Congress party and its supporters, the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday refused to issue any orders on the ongoing arrests of the state government against abusive and derogatory posts on various social media platforms.
It is known fact that the NDA government in Andhra Pradesh has launched a witch-hunt to set a strong precedent against the undeterred use of social media to target political opponents and their families with slanderous content and objectionable morphs. As part of this campaign, numerous social media activists belonging to YSR Congress party have been arrested and several cases were filed in the last two weeks.
While the YSR Congress party alleged abuse of power and suppression of freedom of expression against government inabilities, a Public Interest Litigation was filed by P. Vijay Babu, former Information Commissioner and senior journalist. Hearing this matter, the High Court expressed deep displeasure over filing of PIL in such a matter which is very pertinent and crucial. The court observed that there is no wrong in arresting those who resort to malicious propaganda on social media platforms.
The bench also pointed how the YSR Congress party supporters launched a massive tirade on social media aimed at Judges of High Court and Supreme Court for passing orders against the government. The court stated that if anyone is having issues with the arrests, they can directly approach the court for perusal of the matter.
The court ordered that it cannot interfere in the matter as long as the police department is acting within its purview and in accordance with the law. It clarified that no orders can be issued to restrain the arrests as there is no wrong to clampdown such a hateful practice.
As per reports, the state government has submitted adequate proofs to support its claims for the series of arrests for those who have been targeting several politicians and their families. It made is very clear that posting of vulgar content on social media cannot be allowed to continue.
This observation will be a big blow to the legal cell of YSR Congress party because the government has firm evidences on how an organized assualt has been orchestrated by the previous government with the help of power and public money.
