Delhi Court’s ruling on Disha Ravi Toolkit case

Synopsis – Delhi court grants bail to Disha Ravi in its ruling in the tool kit case. It termed evidence produced by Delhi police as inappropriate.

Introduction-

• Delhi Court granted bail to climate activist Disha Ravi, arrested in the Greta Thunberg ‘toolkit’ case.
• Delhi Police arrested her on charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy in the Greta toolkit case.

Key takeaways from Court’s ruling-

• The Delhi court dismissed the claims as Delhi police failed to show any evidence
• On criminal conspiracy, the Court noted that mere assumption is not sufficient. It should be backed by evidence.
  • The judge stated that only interaction with people of doubtful credentials is not an offence.
• On sedition, the court cited Kedar Nath case (1962) that actual violence or incitement to violence should be associated with words.
• Moreover, the Court negated the state’s “global conspiracy” claims and stated that the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression “includes the right to seek a global audience”. Also, “there are no geographical barriers on communication” as long as it’s “under the four corners of the law.”

What is the Toolkit case?

Toolkit- A document created to explain any issue which provides information on what one needs to do to address the issue.

• The toolkit includes information about petitions, details about protests, and mass movements.
• Also provide a roadmap of how to take forward the protest and what can be done, when and how.

Disha Ravi Toolkit case-

• Delhi police reported that Ravi was the editor of a Google doc (called a toolkit) related to farmer’s protest.
• Police alleged that she started a WhatsApp Group to make the Toolkit doc in collaboration with a pro-Khalistani organization to spread disaffection against the Indian state.
• She was charged with Section 120B [Criminal conspiracy], along with Sections 124A (sedition) and Section 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) of IPC.

Self-regulatory toolkit by OTTs for implementation of Self Regulation Codes, 2020