The Allahabad High Court has refused to quash a case against a man who allegedly posted objectionable remarks in the context of Lord Shiva on Facebook.
In an order passed on Thursday, 6 April, Justice JJ Munir said:
"Offences of the kind that have a tendency to promote hatred between classes of people or communities, have to be put down with a heavy hand. These offences cannot be permitted to flourish in society by adopting a soft-pedalling approach at the cost of widespread damage to the community.”
WHAT WAS THE CASE?
As per the order, Asif, the accused, has been booked under Sections 153-A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race…etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 295-A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the IPC and Section 66 (Computer-related offences) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
However, it remains unclear how Section 66 of the IT Act was attracted, given that the section penalises “computer related offences” mentioned under Section 43 of the Act, which include offences such as damaging the computer, stealing source codes or deleting/altering the information stored. Find the full list of Section 43 offences here.
MORE DETAILS
The order passed on 6 April does not mention what exactly Asif posted. It only says that the allegation against the accused was of “employing objectionable language” regarding Lord Shiva.
“The case is that by those comments, he has insulted the religious sentiments of the Hindu Community,” it adds.
Meanwhile, the accused claimed that he wasn’t the author of those comments, and that they were mere forwards by another person.
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