The Karnataka High Court has quashed criminal proceedings against two men accused of insulting religious sentiments, stating that shouting “Jai Shri Ram” inside a mosque did not “outrage the religious feelings of any class”.
The order, quashing criminal proceedings against Keerthan Kumar and Sachin Kumar from Dakshin Kannada district, was passed by Justice M Nagaprasanna on September 13.
The police had charged the two men under sections of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to hurting religious sentiments (295A), criminal trespass and criminal intimidation based on a complaint that the persons had allegedly entered a local mosque one night in September 2023 and shouted “Jai Shri Ram”.
“Jai Shri Ram” is a Hindu religious phrase that has been adopted by Hindutva groups as a political slogan.
The High Court said that 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 Sri Ram’ it would outrage the religious feeling of any class,” the court said. It said that since the complainant himself had said that Hindus and Muslims were living in harmony in the area, the incident could not have led to animosity between them.
The counsel representing the two men had argued that a mosque is a public place and therefore, there was no case of criminal trespass, and that shouting “Jai Shri Ram” did not violate Section 295A.
The Karnataka government had opposed the argument, claiming that further investigation was needed. However, the court ruled that the alleged offence did not adversely affect public order.
“The apex court holds that any and every act will not become an offence under Section 295A of the IPC,” the court said. “The acts that have no effect on bringing out peace or destruction of public order will not lead to an offence under Section 295A of the IPC.”
The court added that having found “no ingredients” of any alleged offences, allowing further proceedings against the accused would be “an abuse of the process of law and result in miscarriage of justice”.
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