No coercive action against journalist for now, says Himachal Pradesh High Court

Petitioner says he conducted a ‘reality check’ on e-pass registration for inter-State movement

The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Thursday directed the State police not to take any coercive action against a journalist, who had approached the court, seeking quashing of criminal charges against him. Aman Bharadwaj, the petitioner, who works with the Zee Media group, had approached the High Court, seeking quashing and setting aside of FIR under Section 419 (Punishment for cheating by personation), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (Using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the IPC, besides Section 66 (d) of the Information Technology Act and Section 51 of the Disaster Management Act registered against him in Shimla. On April 25, the State government issued certain directions, mentioning the inter-State movement to Himachal Pradesh was to be monitored through the process of registration on the e-pass portal. On May 5, it issued a notification imposing ‘corona curfew’ from May 7. One of the guidelines was the registration on the e-pass web portal of the government of Himachal Pradesh for any kind of inter-State movement.