While in those cases the court was dealing with journalists as accused persons, those questions of free speech nonetheless arise in this case as well. Take these lines from the Arnab Goswami judgment in May 2020, where Justice DY Chandrachud is considering the proportionality of the multiple FIRs:
Let’s be clear here — at no point in the court’s written order, is this Article 32 reasoning provided for refusing to grant relief.
For those who want to suggest that this special dispensation for Article 32 petitions should only lie for journalists, not people involved in the entertainment industy, they might want to go back to the Supreme Court’s decision in 2018 quashing multiple FIRs against Malayalam actress Priya Prakash Varrier. Varrier, who shot to fame for her wink in a video of a song, was also accused of hurting religious sentiments in multiple FIRs across the country.
She approached the court under Article 32 of the Constitution, given the multiplicity of FIRs, and the…