India News | Objectionable Comments Against Lord Shiva: HC Declines to Quash Criminal Proceedings Against Man

Prayagraj (UP), Apr 10 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court has refused to quash criminal proceedings against a man accused of posting objectionable comments against Lord Shiva on social media.

Dismissing a petition filed by one Asif of Aligarh district, Justice J J Munir observed, "Offences of the kind that have a tendency to promote hatred between classes of people or communities have to be put down with a heavy hand. These offences cannot be permitted to flourish in society by adopting a soft-pedalling approach at the cost of widespread damage to the community."

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The allegation against the applicant was that he had posted objectionable comments regarding Lord Shiva on his Facebook profile.

The case was that by those comments he had insulted the religious sentiments of the Hindu community. There have been further comments fomenting communal hatred by other co-accused in the comments section of the Facebook account.

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After investigation, the police submitted a charge sheet against the applicant on the basis of material collected. Thereafter, the Judicial Magistrate-II of Aligarh took cognizance of the offence and issued summons to the applicant on January 3, 2023.

Aggrieved over it, the applicant challenged the summons and the resultant proceedings through the present application in the high court.

During the court proceedings, the counsel for the applicant took the plea that the comments posted on the applicant's Facebook were merely forwarded by another person and that are not the applicant's authorship.

Rejecting the plea, the court said, "If there is a comment which has the tendency to promote enmity between different groups on the ground of religion, then posting it on one's Facebook would certainly constitute an offence. The words employed in the post clearly are ones made with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of a particular section of the community or a class of citizens of the country."

Dismissing the application, the court in its order dated April 6 said, "In the opinion of this court, there is absolutely no good ground to quash the proceedings.... Hence, this application is accordingly dismissed."

(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)