They were held on charge of posting offensive
content on social networking sites
Six months after being jailed and let out on bail for allegedly posting
offensive content on social networking sites, K.V. Jaganatharao and Mayank
Sharma have been recalled for duty by Air India.
The two, who work as in-flight crew, got a pleasant surprise when the
airline, in a letter on Monday, asked them to report for duty on Tuesday
morning.
After their arrest on May 11 and release on bail on May 22, both were
suspended for that period and were eligible only for salaries without
allowances. There was no question of flying as their passports were impounded
by the police. On October 25, they approached the Bombay High Court to get back
the passports.
Mr. Sharma said complaints from a member of a closed group of Air India
cabin crew members on Facebook and Orkut should not have been entertained. The
first complainantto approach a senior police officer in July last, trade union
leader Kiran Pawaskar, was not a member of the closed group and he was not part
of the discussions on it, Mr. Sharma contended.
Both the airline employees demanded that the charges against them,
including those under the Information Technology Act, apart from the Indian
Penal Code, be dropped.
While the police passed on the complaint to the cyber police station in
Bandra, it was only on March 29, 2012 that a first information report was filed
and the two were arrested on May 11. The complainant in this case was Sagar
Karnik, who works for Air India and was a member of the closed group of about
1,500 cabin crew members. Mr. Karnik claimed that the discussion was targeting
political leaders in abusive terms and it “was mature on his part to bring it
to the attention of judicial authorities.”
Asked why a private discussion in a closed group was leaked, Mr. Karnik
defended his action, saying that even domestic violence happened within the
four walls of a house and yet people complained about it to the outside world
in the interests of justice.
Magistrate’s role
Meanwhile, the former Chief Information Commissioner, Shailesh Gandhi,
told The Hindu that while the Facebook post of Shaheen Dhada on Shiv Sena chief Bal
Thackeray had become a rallying point for citizens to defend their fundamental
right of freedom of expression under Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution,
people were ignoring the responsibilities of the magistrate.
Mr. Gandhi, in a statement, said, “What is the role of the magistrate
when a person is produced before him? The only purpose for this requirement in
the Criminal Procedure Code is to ensure that a mind is applied judiciously
before a remand or bail is given.”
The magistrate who examined the case could have seen the gross absurdity
of the charge. The requirement of producing all arrested persons within 24
hours puts the responsibility on the magistrate to decide whether a prima facie case
existed for giving a remand or bail. If it appeared that no reasonable case
existed, the magistrate must refuse to allow any further detention. Since this
did not happen, it led to unnecessary harassment and piling up of cases. A
magistrate must apply his mind to the matter before him and take
responsibility, Mr. Gandhi said.
Instead of vilifying the law, people should question why the
judicial check mandated by law did not work effectively. “This is a very
important legal safeguard against police arbitrariness or stupidity, but it
does not appear to be working meaningfully. Judiciary is the guardian and
monitor of the law,” he pointed out.
In the case of the two Air India employees, the FIR did not mention
Section 67 A of the IT Act, which is a non-bailable offence. The Section was
added later in the remand application to the magistrate after the two were
arrested on May 11.
· Instead
of vilifying law, people should question why judicial check did not work
effectively: ex-CIC
· Drop all
charges against us, say Jaganatharao and Mayank Sharma
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/ai-welcomes-back-two-suspended-employees/article4138706.ece
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