After granting relief to Bollywood personalities Raveena Tandon and Farah Khan in a case relating to hurting religious sentiments of Christians, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday issued directions to not take any coercive steps against actor-comedian Bharti Singh. The trio had earlier been booked by the Punjab Police for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of the Christian community. They later also apologised for the same.
Hearing the petition of Bharti Singh, Justice Sudip Ahluwalia said her plea would come up for further hearing on 25 March, along with the petition filed by Raveena and Farah. Singh also sought quashing of the case and directions to the state against initiation of coercive action till the pendency of the petition,
Punjab Police registered two FIRs against actress Raveena Tandon, director-choreographer Farah Khan and comedian Bharti Singh for allegedly hurting religious sentiments during a TV show. This happened in December 2019.
The second case was registered in Ferozepur cantonment. Earlier, a case was registered in Ajnala town in Amritsar district on the complaint of Sonu Jafar, head of the Christian Front.
Jafar alleged that religious sentiments of Christians were hurt when the stars trivialised the word 'Hallelujah' while trying to pronounce it.
The counsel said that Bharti was accused of making a joke of a word and playing with religious sentiments of a particular community.
He said she was guest/participant in the show telecast on digital platform. She sought the quashing of the FIR on the grounds that it was illegal.
(With inputs from IANS)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)