On Tuesday, October 15, Karnataka High Court quashed a case against two men accused of an offence under IPC Section 295A for allegedly shouting ‘Jai Shri Ram‘ in a mosque. The Karnataka High Court said it was not understandable how the slogan would outrage the religious feelings of any class.
As per the Live Law report, the Court said this after noting that the complainant in the case had himself said that Hindus and Muslims were living in harmony in the concerned area.
The Court further said that as no ingredients of the offences alleged were made out, permitting further proceedings against the petitioners would become an abuse of process of law.
As per the complaint, the two had entered a local mosque one night in September last year and shouted “Jai Shri Ram.”
Notably, the two accused men were booked under various IPC offences including Sections 447 (Punishment for criminal trespass), 505 (Statements conducing to public mischief), 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation), 34 (common intention) and 295A.
The High Court said, “Section 295A deals with deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs. It is ununderstandable as to how if someone shouts ‘Jai Sriram’ it would outrage the religious feeling of any class. When the complainant himself states that Hindu – Muslims are living in harmony in the area the incident by no stretch of imagination can result in antimony.”
Apparently, the High Court referred to the Supreme Court’s decision in Mahendra Singh Dhoni v Yerraguntla Shyamsundar (2017) and said that the apex court had held that any and every act will not become an offence under Section 295A of the IPC and the acts which have “no effect on bringing out peace or destruction of public order” will not lead to an offence under the provision.
The Court, contrary to the State’s position, held that the alleged offence in the present case did not have any adverse effect on public order.
