By
Tanveer Zaidi (Actor-Author-Educationist)
The Bombay High Court on March 13 quashed a 2014 case filed in a Ludhiana magistrate’s court against singer Kailash Kher for allegedly hurting a man’s religious sentiments in his song on Lord Shiva.
Justices Bharati Dangre and Shyam Chandak said, “Merely because he is singing the song being surrounded by a large number of people who have independently performed the role assigned to them by the director, according to us, the ingredients of IPC section 295A are not made out.”
The criminal complaint was filed by one Narinder Makkar, a worshipper of Lord Shiva, under IPC sections 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings) and 298 (uttering words, etc. with deliberate intent to outrage religious feelings).
In the complaint, Makkar said, “Kher is singing the song Babam Bam in his album Kailasa Jhoom Re with a girl wearing clumsy and very short clothes, a boy and girl are kissing each other, and vulgarity is being shown in the song.
The high court protected Kailash Kher from arrest since August 2014. Kher’s advocate, Ashok Saraogi, argued that the choreography and picturization of the song were the concepts of the producer and director.
There was no allegation in Makkar’s complaint that the song’s lyrics outraged his religious feelings.
The judges noted that every action that may be to the dislike of a class of people may not necessarily lead to outraging religious sentiments, as a person can be foisted upon with section 295A if his action is intentional and malevolent… and would not cover an act that is not intended to outrage religious feelings.
They also said that while safeguarding freedom of speech, the burden lay on the complainant to provide ingredients of section 295A as “it is an offense more serious than the one punishable” under section 298.
Regarding section 298, similarly, Makkar failed to make out a prima facie case as “the lyrics of the song sung by the petitioner is nothing but praise of Lord Shiva and the attributes of his mighty character and nothing else”.
