The Allahabad High Court in the case Asif vs. State of U.P. and Another observed and has refused to quash the criminal proceedings against one accused Asif for making objectionable remarks against lord Shiva on Facebook employing objectionable language.
The bench headed by Justice JJ Munir in the case observed that offences of the kind that have a tendency for promoting hatred between classes of people or communities, which have to be put down with a heavy hand. Therefore, the said offence cannot be permitted to flourish in society by adopting a soft-pedalling approach at the cost of widespread damage to the community.
The court booked the accused- Asif under Section 153-A and Section 295-A of Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Section 66 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
In the present case, the accused made comments and insulted the religious sentiments of the Hindu Community. Therefore, the court noted that the comments made by the accused wherein fomenting communal hatred by the other co-accused were made in the comments section of the Facebook Account.
It has also been argued by the counsel appearing for the accused that the alleged comments posted on the Facebook account of the applicant’s were mere forwards by another Anjali Singh and that the said comments were not being made under the authorship of applicants.
The court in the case observed and stated that if there is a comment wherein having the tendency to promote enmity between different groups and same being on the ground of religion posting it on one’s Facebook, would certainly constitute an offence.
Adding to it, the court stated that the words employed in the Facebook post clearly are made with the deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings for a particular section of the community or for a particular class of citizens of the country.
Further, the court observed that even if the said comments have been endorsed by the applicant by posting the same on his Facebook, thus, it does not even matter whether the accused is the author or the exponent of the comments.
Accordingly, the court dismissed the plea filed under section 482 of CrPC.