The Supreme Court granted an interim protection to an advocate from arrest who was charged with sedition after she accompanied a fact-finding team in connection with the Manipur violence and held a press conference as part of the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW).
An FIR was registered by the Manipur police alleging offences of sedition, conspiracy to wage war against India etc. The Supreme Court ordered that no coercive action be taken against advocate Deeksha Dwivedi.
Advocate Dwivedi had filed a petition under Article 32 of the Constitution before Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, seeking protection. She submitted that she had accompanied a two-women team from the NIFW as an independent lawyer and observer.
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The NIFW team is stated to have concluded that certain violent incidents in Manipur were state-sponsored. A press conference was held at Imphal on July 1 after the enquiry, and a release was also issued on the team's findings.
Following this, an FIR was registered against Dwivedi and NFIW representatives for sedition, defamation, making assertions prejudicial to national-integration and allied offences by the Manipur Police on July 8.
The interim order was passed after the matter was mentioned before a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and Manoj Misra by Senior Advocate Siddhartha Dave.
The court noted that the petitioner did not have a copy of the FIR and accordingly, directed the SG to serve a copy of the FIR to the petitioner. The SG was also instructed to gather more information about the case.
It may be mentioned that CPI leader and NFIW general secretary Annie Raja and Nisha Siddhu were named as other accused persons in the FIR, which was lodged on a complaint by one S Liben Singh. The complainant took objection to the accused terming the Manipur violence as "state-sponsored”.
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