New Delhi: The Supreme Court has asked the Karnataka government to respond on the question of how it ascertained the identity of those who allegedly shouted ‘Jai Shri Ram’ at a mosque.
The apex court was hearing a challenge to the Karnataka high court’s October verdict quashing a case against two men accused of an offence under Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly shouting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ in a mosque. The section deals with deliberate effort to hurt the feelings of a religious class. The bench, led by Justice M. Nagaprasanna, had held that the slogan could not be construed as offensive.
As The Wire had reported then, the case against the two men was they had entered a Dakshin Kannada mosque, the Badnya Jumma Mashib, in September and shouted ‘Jai Shri Ram.’ The two were also charged under 447 (trespass) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
The two also allegedly said in the mosque that “they will not allow Bearys (Muslims) to live in peace, according to Bar and Bench.
The ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan has grown into a rallying cry for Hindutva activists and some of their violence pursuits, accompanying lynchings, destruction of religious places, communal skirmishes and so on.
‘A peculiar approach’
A Supreme Court bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and Sandeep Mehta has asked whether CCTV or any other evidence was checked before ascertaining the identity of the accused, according to Bar and Bench.
“How were the respondents identified? Did you see CCTV and made the accused party?” the court asked.
The report said that the court posed these questions to the complainant’s counsel and eventually directed that a copy of the appeal filed by the complainant be served on the state government.
The Hindu has reported that this challenge petition was filed by one Haydhar Ali, represented by senior advocate Devadatt Kamat and advocate Javedhur Rahman.
According to Ali, the high court’s verdict came at a stage when the investigation had not been completed and the Supreme Court itself has repeatedly deprecated the quashing of criminal proceedings at the stage of investigation.
“For reasons best known to itself, (the High Court) has adopted a very peculiar approach and rendered a finding that “It is ununderstandable as to how if someone shouts ‘Jai Sriram’ it would outrage the religious feeling of any class”, completely ignoring the fact that such utterances were made by the accused by trespassing into the Mosque … along with threatening the Muslim community,” the petition noted.
