Authority: Supreme Court of India
Order Date: 14-10-2026
Case Overview
- Petitioner: Abhishek Upadhyay, investigative journalist and operator of the digital news platform "Top Secret".
- Respondents: State of Uttar Pradesh & others, Police Commissionerate Ghaziabad, Crime Branch Investigation Unit, and X (formerly Twitter) as intermediary.
- Petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution seeking quashing of FIR No.678/2026 (registered at Police Station Indirapuram, Ghaziabad) and protection from arrest, and also seeking quashing of a police notice dated 22.08.2026 directing X to provide extensive personal and digital data of the petitioner.
- Alleged incident: On 18.08.2026 the petitioner was alleged to have struck a complainant’s motorcycle near Shipra Mall, Ghaziabad, and to have abused and threatened the complainant. The petitioner denies the incident, claiming it was staged in retaliation for his reporting on alleged misappropriation of offerings at the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple, Ayodhya.
- The FIR copy was initially not supplied to the petitioner; police efforts to locate him on 20‑22.08.2026 were unsuccessful, leading to the issuance of the notice to X for tracing his whereabouts.
- Interim orders dated 25.08.2026 and 07.09.2026 directed that no coercive action be taken against the petitioner and that a copy of the FIR be provided to him.
Final Outcome
- No coercive action shall be taken against the petitioner; the arrest remains stayed until further orders.
- A copy of FIR No.678/2026 is to be supplied to the petitioner (already done).
- The police notice to X dated 22.08.2026 demanding the petitioner’s digital/account information from 01.06.2026 to 22.08.2026 is quashed; any information obtained under that notice shall not be used against the petitioner.
- The court held that personal or digital data for the period prior to the alleged offence cannot be obtained, and post‑FIR data may be sought only with adequate privacy safeguards, which were not raised by the respondents.
- The petitioner’s seized vehicle is to be released within two days of the order.
- The petitioner is free to approach the jurisdictional High Court for further relief and to seek mandatory guidelines for the collection of personal data in investigations.
- All pending applications, if any, are closed; the writ petition and interim applications are disposed of in the terms above.
Topics: Legal Relief, Data Privacy, Arrest Stay