The Supreme Court on Monday granted protection from arrest to psephologist Sanjay Kumar in connection with two FIRs lodged by the Election Commission of India accusing him of spreading misinformation over Maharashtra's electoral rolls through posts on social media.
A bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice N V Anjaria took note of the submissions of senior advocate Vivek Tankha and advocate Sumeer Sodhi that the two FIRs were lodged against Kumar despite the deletion of the social media posts on "X" followed by a public apology.
”He deleted and apologised immediately. Even then two FIRs have been lodged,” Tankha said, pressing for quashing of the FIRs besides protection from any coercive action.
”Issue notice. In the meantime, there shall be no coercive action,” the CJI ordered.
The psephologist made the Maharashtra government, the state DGP and others, including complainants Pravin Shekhar Tadvi and Mahesh Vinayak Kuldivar, as parties to his petition.
The complainants were working at the behest of the poll panel.
Kumar, co-director of Lokniti at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), moved the top court over the two FIRs registered against him in Maharashtra.
The FIRs accused him of spreading misinformation related to Maharashtra's electoral rolls through posts on X.
The FIRs constitute a misuse of law and are an attempt to harass an academic for what was, at worst, a bona fide error, his plea alleged.
On August 17, Kumar wrote two posts in which he compared electoral rolls across certain constituencies in Maharashtra and related data -- subsequently being found misarranged due to a technical error by his associate -- suggesting discrepancies in voter lists.
The psephologist reportedly claimed the number of voters in Maharashtra's Nashik West and Hingna assembly segments rose by 47 per cent and 43 per cent, respectively, between the Lok Sabha election last year and Maharashtra elections this year.
He also claimed the number of voters sharply fell in Ramtek and Devlali constituencies by 38 per cent and 36 per cent respectively.
”I sincerely apologise for the tweets posted regarding Maharashtra elections. Error occurred while comparing data of 2024 LS and 2024 AS. The data in row was misread by our Data team. The tweet has since been removed. I had no intention of dispersing any form of misinformation,” he posted on X after deleting the posts.
He was booked by the Sarakarvada police station in Nashik and Ramtek police station in Nagpur under various provisions of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita for offences including obstructing public duty, misrepresentation, and misleading the public.
Besides quashing the FIRs, the plea sought protection from any prospective FIRs over his social media posts on August 17, which reportedly contained incorrect statistical comparisons of voter lists.
The plea said the mens rea, the intent to commit a crime, was absent in his case, as he had no intention to spread misinformation and acted immediately to rectify the mistake.