Criminal case for hurting religious sentiments: HC notice to Gurdas Maan, govt over cancellation report

The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) on Tuesday sought response from singer Gurdas Maan and the Punjab government on a plea challenging a Jalandhar court’s order whereby cancellation report against the singer in a case of hurting religious sentiments had been accepted.

The HC bench of justice Sandeep Moudgil acted on the plea of one Harjinder Singh, who had opposed the February 22, 2024 order of the sub-divisional judicial magistrate, Nakodar, whereby the cancellation report was accepted in the criminal case in question.

Maan was booked on August 26, 2021 by the Jalandhar police for “hurting” religious sentiments. According to the allegations, Mann had said while performing in a programme that Laddi Shah was a descendant of Shri Guru Amar Das, a fact stated to be “factually and historically incorrect”. Maan had subsequently apologised.

The plea mentioned that the petitioner’s case was based on a video recording supplied to the police which was on record of the trial court but the same had been ignored. “The cancellation report has been accepted and the protest petition was ordered to be dismissed being against the very basic principle that a complaint is not an encyclopedia and statement of witnesses ought to have been examined minutely but the same has been ignored without any reasons merely on the basis of surmises with a pre-determined mind,” the plea had said. The court has sought response on June 13.