The High Court of Bombay at Goa has scathingly quashed a 2019 FIR filed in opposition to members of a rock band for allegedly insulting non secular sentiments, pulling up the police for “abuse” of the authorized course of of their dealing with of the case.
A bench of Justices M S Sonak and M S Jawalkar noticed: “This was indeed the abuse of the process, because, it is apparent that the Police authorities have not even taken cognizance of the legal position explaining the scope of section 295-A of IPC by the Constitution Bench of the Hon’ble Supreme Court…”
Section 295-A offers with “deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs”.
The band, Dastaan Live, had carried out on the Serendipity Arts Festival in Panaji on December 17, 2019. A day later, a Delhi-based advocate, Ok Venkat Krishna, filed a grievance alleging that the hand had dedicated “blasphemy” and damage the “sentiment of hundred crores of India and few million abroad”.
Based on the grievance, the band members had been known as to Panaji Police Station and requested to difficulty an apology. Four of them—Anirban Ghosh, Sumant Balakrishnan,Nirmala Ravindran and Shiva Pathak—had been positioned beneath arrest.
On Friday, listening to petitions by 9 artistes who sought the quashing of the FIR, the judges noticed: “According to us, the Police authorities cannot call citizens to the Police Station and demand apologies of this nature. As if that was not sufficient, the Police placed some of the Petitioners under arrest in the late evening of 18.12.2019, thereby forcing them to seek bail. Some of the other Petitioners had to secure anticipatory bail to avoid physical arrest.”
Krishna’s grievance to the Panaji Police Station said: “….we found a narrative being set up against the government in power and trying to play victim card. As opinion maker myself I felt they were opining on government but to surprise they began chanting ‘OM’ a symbol of my faith in negative narrative and ultimately abusing people chanting the OM and following to Hindu stream has Ullu ke patta (sic),” Krishna had said in his grievance, a duplicate of which was additionally marked to the Goa Chief Minister and the Union Home Minister.
The petitioners contended that the FIR was “driven by political interest” to wreck the band’s fame and to curb free speech and creative intent. They stated that that they had solely carried out “Mantra Kavita” by two-time Sahitya Academy Award winner Vaidyanath Misra, broadly often called Baba Nagarjun, which was composed in 1969. They submitted the complete textual content of the composition to the courtroom.
