Section 295A and 153A of IPC

What is the issue?

The Supreme Court, in late April 2017, has intervened to spare Mahendra Singh Dhoni the ordeal of facing a criminal trial for allegedly insulting the Hindu religion by being featured in the likeness of a deity on the cover of a business magazine.

What the court has said?

• The court quashed a criminal complaint filed under Section 295A of the IPC, a provision that makes “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings” a punishable offence.
• The court said there was no deliberate intent on the part of the cricketer or the magazine to hurt religious sentiments.
• It drew upon the interpretation given to Section 295A by a Constitution Bench as early as in 1957 that it only “punishes the aggravated form of insult to religion when it is perpetrated with the deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of that class”.

What is Section 153A of IPC?

• Another much misused section is IPC 153A – which intends to punish those who promote enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence and language, and doing acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony.
• This section has been employed to harass writers and artists and cast a chill on free expression.
• The problem with insult laws, irrespective of the form they assume, is that they are inherently subjective.
• In this respect, Section 295A and 153A resemble our controversial contempt of court law — there is no saying what will scandalise a judge and therefore no saying when and for what contempt may be invoked.

What is the way forward?

• Judicial relief does come in the end, but the bitter truth is that the process is the punishment.
• It is time our lower courts stop taking reflexive cognisance of trivial cases filed on the basis that the religious, caste or cultural sensitivities of some group have been offended.
• These sections need to be read down, their scope narrowed in a way that moral vigilantes and those who affect an emotional victimhood can no longer exploit the law to serve their narrow ends.

Source: The Hindu