https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=470764 Journalistic criticism of governmental COVID-19 measures is protected speech unless it incites violence or is intended, or has a pernicious tendency, to cause public disorder. Comments on testing, protective equipment, supply chains and migrant workers were treated as critical appraisal, not false rumours, panic-inducing content or incitement; the alleged statements concerning electoral use of deaths and terror attacks were not made. Sedition, defamation, public-order, lockdown-disobedience and disaster-management offences were therefore not established, resulting in quashing of the FIR and related proceedings. A mandatory pre-registration clearance committee for FIRs against experienced journalists lacked statutory basis and was rejected as an impermissible intrusion into criminal procedure. en-us Thu, 03 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0530 Mon, 10 Aug 2026 09:29:00 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=470764 Journalistic criticism of governmental COVID-19 measures is protected speech unless it incites violence or is intended, or has a pernicious tendency, to cause public disorder. Comments on testing, protective equipment, supply chains and migrant workers were treated as critical appraisal, not false rumours, panic-inducing content or incitement; the alleged statements concerning electoral use of deaths and terror attacks were not made. Sedition, defamation, public-order, lockdown-disobedience and disaster-management offences were therefore not established, resulting in quashing of the FIR and related proceedings. A mandatory pre-registration clearance committee for FIRs against experienced journalists lacked statutory basis and was rejected as an impermissible intrusion into criminal procedure. Case-Laws Indian Laws Thu, 03 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=470764