Supreme Court Quashes Criminal Case Against Ex-Bharti Airtel CEO Over Obscene SMSes Received By Airtel Subscriber

The Supreme Court today quashed criminal proceedings pending against a former Chief Executive Officer of Bharti Airtel, who was booked over a lawyer's complaint regarding receipt of 'obscene' messages on his Airtel number.A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh passed the order, keeping the FIR intact for the limited purpose of investigation into the alleged offense, to find out the persons/agencies responsible for sending of the undesirable messages."The impugned FIR No.11/2011...and all the proceedings arising therefrom qua the appellant are hereby quashed. However, the FIR is kept intact with a direction to the Central Crime Branch, Cyber Crime Cell, Chennai to investigate further and if possible, trace out the persons/agencies responsible for sending of the alleged obscene messages."Imputing non-application of mind to the Madras High Court (which dismissed the petitioner's plea to quash the criminal proceedings) and abdication of responsibility to the local police, the Court questioned as to how a CEO could be held responsible for the alleged offense."The High Court has failed to apply its mind to jump to a prima facie conclusion as to how the Chief Executive Officer of the Mobile Service Provider was responsible for sending undesirable messages to the complainant. The local police also abdicated its responsibility and failed to investigate as to who was responsible for committing such offense. Certainly, the appellant - a responsible functionary of Bharti Airtel - was not responsible for the misdemeanor sought to be attributed to him by the complainant...The police authorities...ought to have acted responsibly and in a vigilant manner to find out the source of the alleged obscene messages and the persons responsible for generating [them]...which if sent deliberately can certainly invite penal consequences..."The Court further observed that Bharti Airtel was also in a way a victim of the "cyber crime" assailed by the complainant-lawyer, given the likely impact of such an incident on prospective and existing customers."Infact, the mobile service provider, in a way, would be also a victim of this kind of cyber crime as it may discourage the prospective consumers to avail such services and/or prompt the existing customers to discontinue with the mobile services."After the order was dictated, Senior Advocate Siddharth Aggarwal, appearing for petitioner, suggested that the court put a quietus to the matter and not keep the FIR intact for further investigation, as the messages objected to by the complainant were posters (of movies, etc.) - which are sent by various mobile service providers - and the order may give fresh reason to the complainant to agitate the issue.This was countered by counsel for the respondent(s), who highlighted Bharti Airtel's revenue-sharing agreement with various services providers for SMS and MMS services. Hearing this, Justice Kant probed as to where such agreements say that obscene messages would be allowed?When the counsel explained his stance by submitting that Airtel should exercise control over the SMS/MMS services, Aggarwal underlined that under the Information Technology Act, Airtel is an intermediary having protection of the safe harbor clause. As such, it is not supposed to intervene. Ultimately, Justice Kant asked the counsels to let the authorities investigate and trace out those responsible.Briefly put, respondent No.2-VK Suresh, a lawyer by profession, was a subscriber of a prepaid Airtel SIM. He filed a complaint alleging that obscene messages were being sent to him on his Airtel number. Pursuant to a direction by a Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in Tamil Nadu, an FIR was registered against the petitioner - CEO of Bharti Airtel, Tamil Nadu Circle - and chargesheet filed for the offense under Section 292 IPC.Initially, the petitioner approached the Madras High Court seeking quashing of the FIR in exercise of powers under Section 482 CrPC. However, the High Court dismissed the petition observing inter-alia that respondent No.2-complainant was a consumer enjoying services from Airtel and since he received certain obscene messages (from Airtel), a prima facie case was made out against the petitioner (CEO at Airtel). Challenging the dismissal, the petitioner moved the Supreme Court.Appearance: Senior Advocate Siddharth Aggarwal alongwith AoR Garima Bajaj (for petitioner)Case Title: RAJIV RAJAGOPAL v. THE STATE OF TAMIL NADU, SLP(Crl) No. 6066/2020

Supreme Court Quashes Criminal Case Against Ex-Bharti Airtel CEO Over Obscene SMSes Received By Airtel Subscriber

Debby Jain

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