SC quashes TN MLA's petition over derogatory Facebook post, says 'should face consequences’

livemint.com:

Tamil Nadu MLA S Ve Shekher who is facing cases for sharing a Facebook post in 2018 allegedly containing derogatory remarks against women journalists. The Supreme Court bench of Justices B R Gavai and P K Mishra dismissed Tamil Nadu MLA S Ve Shekher's petition.

The bench observed that one has to be careful while using social media. The Madras High Court in a 14 July order had dismissed his petition seeking quashing of criminal proceedings relating to the post shared by him.

The Tamil Nadu MLA's lawyer argued that Shekher had put some medicine in his eyes on the date of the incident due to which he could not read the contents of the post which he shared. Before the Madras High Court, Shekher's counsel had argued that he was not aware of the contents of the message that was sent to him and had merely forwarded the same from his Facebook account.

His counsel had said that after coming to know of the derogatory remarks contained in the message, Shekher removed the contents within a couple of hours on the same day and had followed it up with a letter dated April 20, 2018 whereby he had tendered an unconditional apology to the concerned women journalists and also to the media. In its order, the HC had noted Shekher is said to have "published/circulated an abusive, derogatory and vulgar comment in his Facebook account" on April 19, 2018 after which a complaint filed before the Chennai Commissioner of Police.

The high court had said that considering the stature of the petitioner, he was expected to be more responsible while giving statements or forwarding messages. "A message that is sent or forwarded in the social media is like an arrow, which has already been shot from the bow," it had said.