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Synopsis

The Ernakulam Sessions Court has recently granted anticipatory bail to Swapna Suresh's lawyer, Advocate Krishna Raj in the case registered against him for a Facebook post.

Suresh has also been in limelight for criticizing Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and commenting on his possible involvement in the Kerala gold smuggling case. 

An FIR was registered against Krishna Raj on June 11 for an offence under Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 on the basis of a complaint by Advocate Anoop VR. 

Adv. Krishna Raj was accused of having made statements on Facebook with a deliberate and malicious intent to outrage the religious feelings of Muslims. He had attached a photograph with the post wherein a person appearing to be in traditional Islamic attire sat on the driver seat of a Kerala State Transport Corporation bus. 

The Sessions Judge, Honey M. Varghese, on the other hand, did not find Raj's comments as being outrageous against a particular community and held that Raj's comments were merely sarcastic criticism against the Government of Kerala. 

The public prosecutor had contended that Raj had been making such comments regularly and with the deliberate intention to outrage the religious feelings of a particular class of citizens. He argued that the photo attached with the post was also outrageous towards the feelings of the Muslim community. 

However, the court held that Raj's post had nothing to do with criticism of any religious community and was actually in criticism of the government.

"Here the highlight of the post is that the State Government arranged a special service in connection with the anniversary of the Government. This section does not disclose any act of insult or attempt to insult the religion or religious beliefs of a class of citizens who are not perpetrated with the deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of that class. As I mentioned, prima facie, the post appears to be a sarcastic criticism against the government of Kerala", the court held. 

The court noted that the petitioner is a practicing lawyer and is not a serial offender and no other case is registered against him so far.  

However, while granting bail, the court also imposed a condition that the petitioner shall not make any comments or publish any posts or statements which would outrage the religious feelings of any class of citizens of India, in any media, including social media.

Case Title: Adv.Krishna Raj.R v. State of Kerala