The Gujarat Government’s decision banning mobile internet services during the Patidar agitation was endorsed by the Supreme Court on Thursday which said such actions were “necessary” in interest of preserving law and order.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur dismissed the petition filed by Gaurav Vyas, a law student from Gujarat, who had earlier lost in the Gujarat High Court on the same issue. The petitioner had argued that imposing such restriction in the name of maintaining law and order under Section 144 of Criminal Procedure Code amounted to infringement of fundamental rights. Moreover, the petitioner’s lawyer Apar Gupta submitted that such ban can only be imposed under the Indian Telegraph Act and not under Section 144.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur refused to entertain the petition finding no valid ground to interfere with the HC order of September 2015. The court was of the view that concurrent powers can exist with the Centre under Telegraph Act and the State under CrPC. Justifying the notification issued by Ahmedabad Commissioner of Police, the Bench said, “At times it becomes necessary to pass such orders in the interest of law and order.”
While similar bans have been imposed by other States in the past, this is the first time that a challenge to such a ban got challenged and fell through. During the Patidar agitation, the Gujarat Police had anticipated breach of law and order and imposed 10-day curb on mobile internet services to restrain passing of SMS and provocative messages on social network sites.
The HC approved the Gujarat order on the ground that it was a limited ban and was in the background of a specific fact situation where competent authority felt that blocking of internet mobile facility was an appropriate action to preserve public safety and tranquility.