Court dismisses Delhi Police's revision plea against order for releasing electronic devices of news portal editors

New Delhi [India], October 19 : A Delhi court on Wednesday dismissed a revision petition moved by the Delhi Police challenging an order of release of electronic devices seized from the editors of a news portal.
"The press is considered the fourth pillar of our great democracy and if it is not allowed to function and operate independently, it would cause serious injury to the foundations of our democracy," the court said in the order passed on October 18.
Delhi police had challenged the order the order passed by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Central on September 23, 2023.
Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Pawan Singh Rajawat dismissed the revision terming it non maintainable.
The court said, "The impugned order does not decide any right but only the interim custody of the devices till conclusion of investigation or disposal
of the case. "
"Consequently, the impugned order passed on the application praying for releasing the devices in question on superdari is purely interlocutory in nature and the revision petition against the order dated September 23, 2023 of Learned CMM (Central) in view of Section 397 (2) Cr.PC is not maintainable," ASJ Rajawat said.
Accordingly, the present revision is hereby dismissed as not maintainable, the court ordered.
Earlier, the CMM court had said that these devices can't be kept for indefinite time. This case was lodged on the complaint of BJP leader Amit Malviya last year.
While dismissing the revision of Delhi police, the court said that continuous seizure of devices impinges upon their fundamental right of Freedom of profession etc.
"It is also to be noted that the investigating agency by continuous seizure of electronic devices of the respondents, is not only causing undue hardship to them, but impinges upon their fundamental right of Freedom of profession, occupation, trade or business as guaranteed under Article 19(1)(g) as well as Freedom of Speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India as admittedly the respondents are working for news portal which is engaged in disseminating news and information and the electronic devices were being used for their work," the court observed.
Delhi police had argued that argued that the Learned CMM Central has passed an unjustified, illegal order against the provisions of law more specifically The Information and Technology Act, 2000.
Additional public prosecutor (APP) argued that investigate against the accused persons are pending in respect of Section 66 (C) and Section 66 (D) of Information Technology Act and despite that Ld. CMM has ordered for release of case property without correctly understanding and interpreting Section 76 of I.T. Act which mandates confiscation of electronic devices.
He further submitted that the electronic devices are required for further investigation of the case and if released, the accused may tamper with it. He prays that the order of 23.09.2023 be set aside.
However, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) had directed the investigation officer to release the electronic devices within 15 days. The matter was listed on October 21, 2023 for compliance of the order.
"There is no reasonable ground for not releasing the digital/electronic devices in favour of the accused/applicant," CMM Siddharth Malik said in the order of September 23.
The court had noted that record shows that the devices seized during the investigation were sent for expert examination to FSL and as per the reply of the IO, mirror images of devices have already been prepared.
Delhi Police opposed the application for release of devices on the ground that the mirror images of the devices may not be sufficient for retrieval of data from the said devices if in case some new facts come to light during further investigation.
The court had rejected the contention and said, "From the record it is clear that the devices seized during investigation have been in custody of the IO for a very long time. The devices have already been examined by the FSL and their mirror Images is available with FSL for the purpose of any subsequent investigation."
The court said that the argument of the IO that the devices might again be required for some subsequent investigation is speculative in nature based on the presumption of coming to light some new fact at a later Stage, which may or may not happen.
"The devices of the accused persons cannot be kept indefinitely by the IO only only on the speculation of an uncertain future event/discovery," the court observed.
The court had further said that even otherwise, reasonable conditions can be imposed on
the applicant/accused to ensure that the device is available to the IO for investigation, if required at a later stage.
The court had imposed a condition that the applicant/accused shall furnish an affidavit before
the IO to keep the device in his/her own possession/custody. The applicant/accused shall further make every effort to keep the device safe from tempering and in case the applicant/accused notices any anomaly with the device, the same shall be immediately notified to
the IO and the device shall also be handed over to the IO.
These electronic devices were siezed October last from the office of the news portal and it's editors.
BJP leader Malviya had lodged a case for allegedly tarnishing his image. The FIR was registered for cheating, forgery, defamation, criminal conspiracy etc.