Supreme Court
The Supreme Court made important remarks while hearing the petition. How can chanting religious phrases constitute a crime, asked a bench of Justices Pankaj Mittal and Sandeep Mehta. How does raising slogans of “Jai Shri Ram” constitute a crime? The petition challenges the Karnataka High Court order quashing the case against two people who allegedly raised “Jai Shri Ram” slogans inside a mosque.
In a plea filed by the complainant Haider Ali CM, the judge asked if they shouted specific religious phrases or names, would that constitute a crime? The apex court also asked the complainant how he could identify the person who allegedly entered the mosque and raised slogans.
Supreme Court asks – How to identify accused?
During the hearing, the Supreme Court bench asked Senior Advocate Devdutt Kamat, appearing for the petitioner, how do you identify these accused? You said they were all caught on CCTV. The judge further asked who confirmed the identity of the person who came in? The bench said the high court held that the charges did not fall under Section 503 or Section 447 of the Indian Penal Code.
Hearing postponed to January 2025
The Supreme Court said that Section 503 of the Indian Penal Code deals with criminal intimidation, while Section 447 deals with the punishment for criminal trespass. Referring to the complaint, Kamat said the FIR was not an encyclopedia of crime. When the judge asked you if you could identify the actual person entering the mosque? So Kamath said state police must explain it. In response, the judge asked the petitioner to provide a copy of the petition to the state government and postponed the next hearing of the case to January 2025.
The High Court also made a stern statement
The high court said in its order that it is incomprehensible how it can hurt the religious sentiments of any group if someone raises slogans of “Jai Shri Ram”. Whereas there is no allegation that this incident caused any public disturbance or any rift. The complaint states that the complainant did not even see who the person accused of criminal intimidation under Section 506 of the CrPC was.
What’s going on?
The high court order was passed on a petition filed by two people accused of entering a mosque and raising religious slogans. He sought quashing of the FIR and proceedings registered against him. The incident allegedly took place on September 24, 2023 and a complaint was lodged at Kadaba police station at Puttur Circle.
The complainant alleged that some unidentified persons entered the mosque and started issuing threats after shouting slogans of “Jai Shri Ram”. Reacting to this, the High Court said that allowing further proceedings against these petitioners without finding any element of the alleged offense would be an abuse of legal process and would lead to a miscarriage of justice.
