The Madras High Court on Thursday directed the Centre as well as the State government to respond to a public interest litigation petition which sought to restrain media houses which “communalise” the spread of COVID-19 by using terms such as “Corona Jihad”, “Corona terrorism”, “Islamic Insurrection” and “Corona bombs”.
Justices R. Subbiah and R. Pongiappan ordered notices on the petition filed by ASA. Umar Farooq, State general secretary of Social Democratic Party of India. The litigant sought a direction to Director General of Police to ensure registration of first information reports (FIRs) on complaints related to such communalisation.
In his affidavit, he accused a section of the print as well as broadcast media of intentionally painting a communal colour to an unfortunate incident of a conference of the Tablighi Jamaat in New Delhi having become one of the sources for the spread of the virus. He claimed that hashtags such as “#CoronaJihad” and “#BioJihad” were made to trend on social media.
