Cartoonist Hemant Malviya moves SC for bail over caricature of PM, RSS

Indore-based cartoonist Hemant Malviya has approached the Supreme Court for an anticipatory bail after the Madhya Pradesh High Court rejected his plea for protection in a criminal case linked to a caricature deemed derogatory to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The petition was mentioned on Thursday before a vacation bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Joymalya Bagchi by senior advocate Vrinda Grover. The bench agreed to list the matter for hearing on July 14.

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Malviya was booked in May this year after a complaint was filed by an RSS member objecting to his Facebook post containing the caricature. The illustration showed a man in RSS uniform, with his shorts pulled down, bent over a caricature of the prime minister – depicted with a stethoscope and syringe – apparently administering an injection. The cartoon was alleged to be offensive and defamatory.

In its July 3 order denying bail, Justice Subodh Abhyankar of the Madhya Pradesh High Court observed that the cartoon “clearly overstepped the threshold of freedom of speech” and represented a “sheer misuse” of Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. The court said custodial interrogation was necessary.

“In the considered opinion of this court, the conduct of the applicant in depicting the RSS, which is a Hindu organisation, along with the Prime Minister of this country in the aforesaid caricature, coupled with his endorsement of a rather demeaning remark, dragging unnecessarily the name of Lord Shiva in the comments tagged to it, is nothing but the sheer misuse of the freedom of speech and expression …,” the High Court observed.

The court also noted that the cartoon became more objectionable when combined with the allegedly derogatory remarks involving Lord Shiva, and took into account that Malviya had encouraged others to use or remix the caricature.

Before the Supreme Court, Malviya has defended the caricature as satirical social commentary, originally drawn during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The cartoon, he has said, was a response to conflicting public statements on the efficacy and safety of vaccines.

His plea states: “The cartoon is a satirical caricature work which offers social commentary on the comments made by a public figure regarding some vaccines being effective and ‘safe like water’, while in the same breath admitting that their efficacy remains untested through rigorous clinical trials.”

Malviya further clarified that a social media user later reused the image in May 2025 with commentary on unrelated political topics, including caste census and Waqf-related issues. Malviya had only reshared the user’s post to highlight that his work is freely available for public use and interpretation.

The plea submits that the petitioner shared the post to reaffirm that his cartoons are open to public use and interpretation. He offered no additional comment and merely acknowledged someone else’s critique.

Challenging the high court’s denial of anticipatory bail, the petition argues that the order “condemns the petitioner” and treats anticipatory bail in a punitive manner, without establishing any specific investigative requirement for custodial interrogation.