Mamata's Morphed picture: SC grants bail to BJP activist, asks her to apologise

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has granted bail to BJP activist Priyanka Sharma who was arrested by the West Bengal Police for sharing a meme lampooning chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Facebook.

However, the court ordered that she will have to tender a written apology for sharing the meme as it “hurt” a political rival during elections. The SC insistence on an apology did not go down well with free-speech activists.

A vacation bench of justices Indira Banerjee and Sanjiv Khanna said the apology was a gesture she should show after she was freed. The bench clarified that insistence on an apology was linked to the circumstances of this particular case and would not be treated as a precedent. The bench issued notices to the Bengal government on the legal issues of the case. SC will examine the case at length when it reassembles after the summer vacation.


Priyanka Sharma was arrested on May 10 for sharing a meme in which actress Priyanka Chopra’s photo was morphed with a photo of the CM’s face.

Mamata meme
She was remanded to 14 days in judicial custody after a Trinamool worker filed a complaint against the BJP youth wing activist. The tone for the apology was set by justice Banerjee who said that the court will grant her bail but she should apologise. “Your freedom of speech ends where it violates someone else’s rights,” Justice Banerjee said. “She is a political activist. If she were an ordinary citizen it would be different.”

Appearing for Sharma, senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul resisted the order. “This is gross abuse of power.

She has deleted her post. But it has since gone viral,” he said. Kaul demanded to know if the court was going to put conditions on her release on bail. “When you are a member of the BJP, the insinuations are slightly different,” said justice Khanna.

Kaul then claimed there were hundreds of such memes of the PM but no action were taken against anyone. Banerjee then said: ‘There is no equality to a wrong.” Justice Khanna clarified the bench was not linking the release on bail, and apology but as a “gesture” Sharma must “apologise”.

“If it hurts another, apologise.”

The bench did not specify where, and to whom, except to suggest that it must be in “writing”, possibly on Facebook, where she had shared the meme. Kaul argued memes were the latest kind of political satire but the bench wouldn’t hear of it. “They may be doing the rounds, but it’s wrong,” Justice Banerjee said.

The senior advocate said SC had struck down Section 66A of the IT Act.

Sections 500 of the IPC, and 67A of the IT Act do not apply, he said. All this “merely because of a meme?” “I feel deeply about freedom of speech and expression.” Justice Banerjee conceded free speech was a non-negotiable, but did not relent on the apology part.

The order, however, waived it as a condition for release.