The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday dismissed an anticipatory bail plea of Delhi-based academician Madhu Kishwar in a case linked to the circulation of an alleged obscene video on social media, carrying false captions and remarks aimed at a constitutional authority.The court took note of the fact that she has been served notices thrice by the police to join the investigation but she failed to appear, which the court said showed “her conduct of noncooperating with the investigating agency”.“She, being a prominent social media personality and a scholar, as has been proclaimed on her behalf, cannot be presumed to be oblivious to the impact of such a tweet, which created a stir as it attracted not only 1.74 lakh views but even comments by other co-accused and public at large. Further, had it been a solitary incident, one may have still given it another thought, but as has been brought out, even on previous occasions, she had been tweeting with different hashtags materials, posts of sentimental sensitivity (as shown by police in its report)..,” the bench of justice Aman Chaudhary observed while denying the pre-arrest bail.Kishwar was booked by Chandigarh Police on April 19 on the complaint of a UT resident, who alleged that obscene material was being circulated online with misleading captions intended to malign the image of a constitutional dignitary. The FIR invoked provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, along with Sections 66-C, 66-D and 67 of the Information Technology Act.The academician approached the high court on May 26 seeking pre-arrest bail, submitting that she had re-tweeted a 14-second video clip on social media which was innocuous and without any ill intent. The offence of forgery is not made out against her as she is not the one who had prepared the video. Further she is a seasoned academician and authored many books and has no criminal antecedents, Kishwar had claimed.The UT police, on the other hand, claimed that she not only aided in spreading misinformation but also defamed the image of the “head of the government”. Her custodial interrogation is required to get to the root of the matter and to verify as to how she was aware that there are eight similar videos. Further, she may continue doing the same as in the last six months there has been a large number of such tweets from her, the Chandigarh Police had told the court.The court took note of the fact that she has been served notices thrice by the police to join the investigation but she failed to appear, which the court said showed “her conduct of noncooperating with the investigating agency”.The court also noted that the video in question was uploaded on another social media platform, however, after her comments, it got 1,74,000 views and speculation was made of it resembling the holder of a “constitutional post”.The court asserted that there is an obvious distinction between constructive criticism and tweeting/ trolling to malign, cause aspersions and insinuations, and in case the same is by someone like the petitioner, who has large social media following the magnitude of the repercussions can be far from that can be “fathomed”.“Such posts can create disharmony, encourage separatist sentiments and put the unity and integrity at peril,” it recorded, stressing the need of a regulatory mechanism. “... misconception and misinformation can be made to spread at lightning speed with the availability of all kinds of social media applications, there comes greater social responsibility while creating content and forwarding the same. Where seeing becomes believing, regulatory provisions are in an emergent need,” the bench asserted.It declined the relief observing that the probe is at a nascent stage and several aspects remain to be unearthed, especially in view of petitioner’s comment to a post suggesting that eight more such videos are there. “..it is way too soon to rule out the element of criminality involved,” it added.