Arrested for meme on Mamata Banerjee, BJP activist’s cry for help reaches Supreme Court

Concerned over the arrest of a BJP activist in West Bengal for morphing the face of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the image of actor Priyanka Chopra from the New York Met Gala last week, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the 25-year-old's bail plea on Tuesday.

Priyanka Sharma, the Howrah district cell convenor of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), was remanded to 14 days in prison by a local court on May 11. She was charged under Section 500 (defamation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and also sections 66A (sending offensive messages through electronic means) and 67A (transmitting material containing sexually explicit act in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, while acting on a complaint by local Trinamool leader Vibhas Hazra.

The arrest revived ghosts of 2012, when a series of arrests under Section 66A led to public outrage. Two girls from Palghar were arrested for posting a message critical of the state-wide bandh following the death of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray.

The girls were released the day after, but the incident sparked a nation-wide debate on the misuse of Section 66A. This provision of law was struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in a landmark decision on March 24, 2015, on a PIL filed by law student Shreya Singhal.

In the Shreya Singhal case, the court, while striking down Section 66A, said, "Section 66A is cast so wide that virtually any opinion on any subject would be covered by it, as any serious opinion dissenting with the mores of the day would be caught within its net. Such is the reach of the section, and if it's to withstand the test of constitutionality, the chilling effect on free speech would be total."

On Monday, senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul appeared for Sharma and mentioned the matter before a vacation bench of the Supreme Court. The bench initially wanted the matter to be heard by the Calcutta High Court. But Justice Indira Banerjee, who hails from the Calcutta HC, was mindful of the situation in the state, and the fact that all courts are on strike till May 14. The bench then decided to list the matter for Tuesday, as the petitioner would otherwise be rendered remediless. The petition has been moved by Rajib Sharma, the brother of Priyanka.

The Case Against Priyanka

• Priyanka Sharma, 25, had morphed a photo of CM Mamata Banerjee’s face over an image of Priyanka Chopra
• Based on a complaint filed by a local Trinamool leader, she was charged under Section 66A