New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday (July 15) criticised cartoonist Hemant Malviya over his cartoons on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) calling it “immature” and “undignified”. However, the top court also granted him interim protection from coercive action by the Madhya Pradesh Police.“Why do you do all this?” a bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Aravind Kumar, hearing the petition, asked the counsel of cartoonist Hemant Malviya, as quoted by news agency PTI.Advocate Vrinda Grover, representing Malviya and seeking anticipatory bail for him, said that the issue was regarding a cartoon made in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic. Malviya approached the Supreme Court after the Madhya Pradesh high court refused to grant him any relief in an order passed on July 3.On July 14, appearing for the State, additional solicitor general K.M. Nataraj submitted screenshots of the objectionable social media post showing the cartoons. The bench, on seeing them, had remarked that one of the posts was “very very offensive”.While we do not know which cartoons the SC took exception to, the objection seems to be over the fact that they showed members of the ruling party – including one bearing resemblance to Modi – the RSS and other authorities in undress.To this, Grover had argued, “It may be unpalatable. Let me say it is in poor taste. Let me go to that extent. But is it an offence? My lords have said, it can be offensive but it is not an offence. I am simply on law. I am not trying to justify anything.” Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Justice Dhulia criticised the cartoon saying that freedom of speech and expression was being abused. “Whatever we may do with this case, but this is definitely the case that the freedom of speech and expression is being abused,” he observed.ASG Nataraj also said that this was happening commonly as people were resorting to abusive or brash language on social media to become “heroes”. The top court also remarked in favour of considering guidelines against abuse on social media.“What is happening today is people say and write all kinds of things without caring about the language they use online and on their shows,” Justice Dhulia said, as quoted by The Hindu.Meanwhile, Grover agreed to take down the cartoon from social media and to make a statement that he was not endorsing the objectionable comments. She also noted that Malviya had agreed to apologise.Malviya was booked by the Indore police in May based on a complaint filed by lawyer and RSS worker Vinay Joshi over his cartoons made during the pandemic which were recently shared by some social media users.Joshi had alleged that Malviya hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus and disturbed communal harmony through his “objectionable” material on social media.