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Karnataka High Court had quashed the complaint there is no noting there was no allegation that the incident alleged caused public mischief or any rift
A plea has been filed before the Supreme Court challenging the Karnataka High Court's order of September 13, 2024 quashing an FIR lodged against two men for allegedly barging into a mosque in Dakshina Kannada district and raising 'Jai Sri Ram' slogan.
The complainant, Haydhar Ali CM has claimed the High Court's order was in the teeth of the judgments of top court berating quashing of criminal proceedings even before the investigation could be completed when the complaint FIR prima facie disclosed the commission of cognizable offences.
"The High Court has adopted a very pedantic approach in quashing the criminal proceedings by merely embarking upon an examination as to whether the ingredients of the offences mentioned in the FIR were met or not," the plea states.
In the impugned order, Karnataka High Court observed that it was ununderstandable how chanting "Jai Shree Ram" in a mosque outraged religious feelings.
“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,” the high court order read.
An FIR was registered following a complaint alleging that some unknown individuals entered the mosque, shouted the slogan "Jai Shree Ram," and threatened that they would not leave the community, after which they reportedly fled the scene.
It is the complainant's case that the crux of the allegations and the FIR would prima facie show that the offences under Sections 153-A, 297, 298,441 r/w 442 r/w 448, 505 and 506 of the IPC were committed.
"The impugned order has been passed completely ignoring the dictum laid down by this Court in the several cases. The entire investigation has been stultified since the issuance of notice on November 29, 2023, when the High Court stayed the criminal proceedings in the matter," top court has been told.
As per the petitioner, not only has the High Court ignored the dictums, but for reasons best known to itself, has adopted a very peculiar approach and rendered a finding that "It is ununderstandable as to how if someone shouts 'Jai Sri Ram' it would outrage the religious feeling of any class completely ignoring the fact that such utterances were made by the accused persons by trespassing into the Mosque compound/premises along with threatening the Muslim community".
The special leave petition stated that the impugned order deserved to be interfered with and set aside since the present case is not one of those rarest of the rare cases, where prosecution is required to be scuttled at the very inception itself.
"The observation of the High Court that shouting 'Jai Sri Ram' will not outrage the religious feelings of any class and the incident by no stretch of imagination can result in acrimony, itself shows that the occurrence of the incident cannot be denied, at least at this stage," the SLP submits.
Such an incident has taken place within the Mosque premises, coupled with the threat given to the lives of Muslims, shows that the investigation ought not have been impeded as has been done by the High Court, Haydhar Ali has submitted.
"This is a case where letting the impugned order attain finality would amount to an abuse of process of the court, and this court should exercise its discretionary power to grant special leave to appeal under Article 136 of the Constitution," it said.
The complaint alleged two unknown men entered the mosque compound premises on September 24, 2023 and shouted 'Jai Shri Ram's slogan and threatened Muthavalli that they will not leave the community.
Case Title: Haydhar Ali CM vs. Keerthan Kumar
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