Prayagraj, Dec 10 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court on Friday quashed an FIR registered against 'Mirzapur' web series producers Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani in a case that accused them of hurting religious, social and regional sentiments through their portrayal of Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh.

A two-judge bench comprising justices M C Tripathi and Subhash Vidyarthi allowed the petition filed by Akhtar and Sidhwani.

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Earlier, in January, the court had stayed their arrest in the case.

The FIR was registered against the makers of 'Mirzapur' under section 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), other sections of the IPC and section 67-A of the Information Technology Act.

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The counsel for Sidhwani and Akhtar said in the petition that even if all the allegations in the FIR were accepted as true, no case was made out against the petitioners.

There was no allegation that the web series was produced with any deliberate or malicious intention of outraging the religious and social sentiments of citizens of India or to insult the religious and social feelings of the people of any particular class.

The state counsel submitted that there was a specific allegation that the web series hurt the social and religious feelings of the first informant.

After hearing both parties, the bench observed, "There is no allegation in the entire FIR that any content shown in the series portrays any particular religion in a bad light and which can possibly hurt the religious feelings of a class of citizens."

"Even as per the averments made in the FIR, it is the informant alone whose religious, social and regional sentiments have been hurt by the web series and not those of any class of citizens. There is nothing on record to indicate that besides the informant, the religious beliefs of any class of citizens were hurt by the web series 'Mirzapur'," it added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)