HC dismisses plea challenging relief to Gurdas Maan in case related to hurting sentiments
According to the allegations, Punjabi singer Gurdas Maan, during an event, said Laddi Shah is a descendant of Guru Amar Dass. Maan had subsequently apologised.
The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) has dismissed a plea challenging a Jalandhar court order whereby cancellation report in a case against singer Gurdas Maan for allegedly hurting religious sentiments was accepted by the trial court.
“..preaching and believing (in) a religion is subjective to its followers or professors and no such malicious act intentionally and deliberately is established on examination of the report submitted by the investigating agency and on minute and clinical scrutiny of material available before it which could be considered to say that the act of accused Gurdas Maan is enough to outrage the religious sentiments of any other class or community as a whole,” the bench of justice Sandeep Moudgil observed.
The plea was filed by one Harjinder Singh, who had agitated against the February 22, 2024 order of subdivisional judicial magistrate of Nakodar whereby the cancellation report was accepted in the criminal case in question. Maan was booked on August 26, 2021 in Jalandhar. The allegations were that the Punjabi singer, during an event, said Laddi Shah is a descendant of Guru Amar Dass, a fact stated to be “factually and historically incorrect”. The allegations were that the singer had hurt the sentiments of the Sikh community. Maan had subsequently apologised.
The court underlined that it is also cautious to the sensitivity but the same time has to look at the things rationally. “The intentional insult must be of such a degree that should provoke a person to break the public peace or to commit any other offence. The person who intentionally insults intending or knowing it to be likely that it will give provocation to any other person and such provocation will cause to break the public peace or to commit any other offence, in such a situation, the ingredients of Sections 295-A and 504 are satisfied,” it recorded.
The bench further said that there was a thin distinction between religion and religious belief. “One of the essential elements constituting the offence is that there should have been an act or conduct amounting to intentional insult and the mere fact that the accused hurled such religiously-compromised expressions to directly hurt the sentiments of the Sikh community, as such, is not sufficient by itself for this court to direct the magistrate to take cognisance of the same,” the bench observed dismissing the plea.
