Mere posting condom ad having couple playing garba in background does not hurt religious sentiments: Madhya Pradesh HC
A pharmacy professional had posted an advertisement of condoms on his social media pages which had a couple dancing Garba in the background.
The Madhya Pradesh recently quashed a First Information Report (FIR) and subsequent criminal proceedings initiated against a man for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of Hindus.
The FIR had been lodged against the man under Sections 505 and 295-A of the Indian Penal Code along with Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
In the year 2018, the man had posted an image on WhatsApp groups and a Facebook page which was essentially an advertisement of condoms and Pregnancy Test Kit, however, it had a couple dancing Garba in the background.
A complaint had been made to the police regarding this upon which the police had registered the FIR. The prosecution sanction was also obtained and after completion of investigation, charge-sheet was filed against the man.
Seeking relief, the man filed a petition under Section 482 CrPC before the high court. His counsel argued that the petitioner himself was a Hindu and by posting that imaged he had done nothing which would hurt the religious feelings of the Hindu community or would incite hatred etc.
The counsel apprised the court the petitioner was a pharmacy professional and the image that he posted on social media platform was in good faith without any criminal intention.
He further told that as soon as the petitioner got to know about the FIR, he immediately removed the said image from all his social media pages and also apologized for the same publicly stating that he had no intention of hurting anyone’s religious feelings.
On the other hand, the state counsel alleged that the petitioner had posted the disputed image during Navratri period which itself showed his criminal intention to wound religious sentiments of Hindu community.
Court took note of the facts that the petitioner was actually running a pharmacy business and he had posted the said image from his own mobile number without concealing his identity.
The bench of Justice Satyendra Kumar Singh held that it showed that the petitioner’s intention was just to promote the product of his company and not to hurt the religious feelings and sentiments of any community.
Court also referred to the order passed by the Apex Court in the case of Salman Khan vs. State of Gujarat and others (2018) where the FIR lodged against Salman Khan for releasing his movie titled Loveratri during Navarati period had been quashed.
Therefore, while stressing that from the content of the disputed image it was clear that it was not obscene, court opined that allowing the prosecution to continue the instant case would amount to abuse of the process of Court and discharged the petitioner from all the charges levelled against him.
Case Title: Mahendra Tripathi vs State of Madhya Pradesh