Insult to 'Hindutva' not religious insult to attract Section 295A IPC: Abhinav Chandrachud argues in Karnataka HC

SUMMARY

• The FIR was based on a complaint registered by the Principal of the College who alleged that a few students had unlawfully assembled in the college premises in December 2019 to stage a protest against CAA at the Government Arts College, Bengaluru.

• As per the complaint, some individuals were displaying a poster which had "F*ck Hindutva" written on them.

• The FIR alleged that this message amounted to promoting enmity between communities and religious insult so as to invoke Sections 153A and 295A IPC.

• The petitioner was earlier granted anticipatory bail by the Sessions Court on January 31, 2020. Later, she approached the High Court seeking to quash the FIRs. It is argued that FIR constitutes an abuse of process as the petitioner was not present at the site of the protest in question.

• On December 20, 2019 when the alleged protest took place, she was present at her institute for attending another event which was being organized by her.

• The petition says that though the principal has named some students who were allegedly holding the placards, the petitioner's name has not been mentioned in the First Information Statement.

• The charges under sections 143 and 149 of IPC for violating orders issued under Section 144 of CrPC. It is stated that these 144 orders have been struck down as illegal by a division bench of the High Court.

WHAT IS 153A AND 295A OF INDIAN PENAL CODE

• 153A OF INDIAN PENAL CODE- Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) deals with the offence of promoting disharmony, enmity or feelings of hatred between different groups on the grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc. and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony. The offence is a cognizable offence and the punishment for the same may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.

• 295A OF INDIAN PENAL CODE- Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage reli¬gious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.—Whoever, with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class of [by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise], insults or attempts to insult the religion or the religious beliefs of that class, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 4(three years), or with fine, or with both.]

POINTS HIGHLIGHTED BEFORE BENCH

• Firstly, it was addressed before Karnataka High Court while appearing in a case seeking quashing of FIR by Advocate Abhinav Chandrachud that Hindutva is not a religion and insult to it cannot be regarded as a religious insult additionally 'Hindutva' can be considered to be a philosophy, a way of life, or even predominant ideology of a political party. And;

• Secondly, whenever somebody insults, even perhaps uses abusive language against 'Hindutva', that is not an insult to a religion but insult to a political philosophy.

• He also submitted that it is neither an offence under Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code nor can be treated under 153A of Indian Penal Code as there no two communities involved.

• He made these submissions while seeking to quash two FIRs against a law student, who is booked under section 295-A, 153-A, 143, 149 and 448 of IPC, for allegedly holding an offensive poster during a protest held against the Citizenship Amendment Act.

• Dr. Chandrachud sought a short adjournment to place on record the citations relied by him to argue his case, likewise the bench of Justice Suraj Govindaraj hearing the case decided the further hearing on December 21.

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