Mumbai: In a significant development, the Bombay High Court on Monday pulled up the BJP-Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction) coalition government for booking a Congress worker, who criticised the BJP leader and minister Chandrakant Patil. The court quashed the FIR against the Congress worker and also imposed Rs 25,000 charges on the State government.
A bench of Justices Revathi Mohite Dhere and PK Chavan quashed the FIR while hearing the petition of Congress worker Sandeep Arjun Kudale. Kudale was arrested by the police after he posted a video statement on social media criticising minister Chandrakant Patil. In his video statement, Kudale alleged that BJP minister Chandrakant Patil had made objectionable remarks against Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Karmaveer Bhaurao Patil.
Soon after he posted the video on social media, Kudale was booked under section 153 (A) of the IPC for “promoting enmity between different groups on various grounds”. The Bombay High Court, however, ruled that law cannot be used “as a tool or as an instrument of oppression, by registering FIRs, to harass people by preventing/intimidating them, from expressing their views/opinions/dissent, which the Constitution of India, guarantees to them”.
The court further said that after examining the video no offence was made out against the petitioner. The court also said that registering a case and making an arrest due to differences of opinion is not legal. Justice Revathi Mohite Dhere also highlighted that the petitioner's language, though harsh, is troubling. But it does not fall under the crime category, she said.
