Is chanting ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ a crime or hate speech in India? In a bizarre case, Karnataka Police had booked five men in June this year for promoting enmity by chanting ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. However, the Karnataka High Court has now quashed the FIR saying that chanting ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ doesn’t come under hate-speech. The Karnataka High Court made the observations while quashing a first information report (FIR) registered against five men under Section 153A of Indian Penal Code (IPC).
What Is The Case?
The incident is related to June this year when five men were returning from an event celebrating the oath ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They were attacked by a group of people who assaulted and stabbed them for chanting ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. The incident took place on June 9. However, when the victims approached the Police, the Karnataka Police registered an FIR against the complainants under several provisions of the IPC, including Section 153A which penalises promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race and place of birth. The police said that the FIR was registered following a complaint made by a Muslim man who alleged that the petitioners had threatened him. Karnataka is being ruled by Siddaramaiah-led Congress government.
What High Court Said
Justice M Nagaprasanna not only granted relief to the five accused but also said that not a single ingredient of Section 153A was met in the case. “In the light of the afore-narrated facts and the judgments extracted supra, permitting even investigation into the case at hand would be prima facie permitting investigation into the sloganeering of Bharath Matha Ki Jai inter alia, which can by no stretch of imagination be promoting disharmony or enmity amongst religions,” the Court said.
Justice Nagaprasanna said that this was a case of a counterblast to the complaint that had been registered by the petitioners, reported Bar and Bench.
