Academic Madhu Purnima Kishwar has approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking quashing of an FIR registered by the Chandigarh Police over a social media post concerning a video clip allegedly showing Prime Minister Narendra Modi receiving a face massage from a woman.

Justice Vikram Aggarwal directed the Chandigarh Administration to file an affidavit addressing the assertions made by Kishwar in her petition.

The Court also directed the parties to address how the quashing petition would be maintainable or entertainable in view of a Coordinate bench judgment in Kuldeep Singh v. State of Punjab & Ors., particularly since Kishwar's anticipatory bail application had earlier been dismissed.

The FIR was registered on the complaint of an advocate, who alleged that a video clip was being circulated by various social media users with misleading claims that the Prime Minister was receiving a face massage from a woman.

Senior counsel Kapil Sibal appearing for Kishwar submitted that the video was initially circulated by certain users of X (formerly Twitter) and that Kishwar had merely responded to one such post without naming anyone or making any reference to a Constitutional authority.

Sibal submitted that another user, Zubair Mohammed, subsequently claimed that Kishwar's post implied that the person in the video was the Prime Minister. Kishwar immediately responded to that post, stating that the person shown in the video was “not likely to be the Prime Minister.”

He further submitted that the video was subsequently reposted by several other users and that many people supported Kishwar's contention that she had never stated that the person in the video was the Prime Minister.

Sibal argued that even if the allegations in the FIR were accepted in their entirety, no offence was made out against Kishwar. He took the Court through each of the provisions invoked in the FIR and submitted that, at the highest, the allegations could constitute defamation, which is not a cognizable offence.

Public Prosecutor appearing for the Chandigarh Administration informed the Court that Kishwar's anticipatory bail application had been rejected by a Coordinate Bench on May 29, 2026.

The matter is now listed for August 25.

Mr. Kapil Sibal, Senior Advocate with Mr. S.S. Narula, Senior Advocate with Mr. Sidharth Grover, Advocate, Ms. Sumedha, Advocate, Ms. Vedika Dave, Advocate, Mr. Vabhav Jain, Advocate and Mr. Anmol, Advocate for the petitioner.

Mr. Manish Bansal, P.P. U.T., Chandigarh

Mr. Shubham Mangla, Addl. P.P. U.T., Chandigarh Ms. Diksha Sharma, Advocate and

Mr. Arjun Garg, Advocate for respondent No.1-U.T., Chandigarh.

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