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Kerela High Court Comments On The Maintainability Of Offences Under Sec 153-a Of Ipc
Justice Ashok Menon on 22nd July 2020 granted anticipatory bail to some accused who were alleged to be involved in hatching a conspiracy to demolish a film set depicting a Church at Kalady riverside. This conspiracy also became the cause of an armed riot that caused the film producer to incur huge monetary losses. The walls of the Sanctum Sanctorum of the Kalady Mahadeva Temple was also damaged in the riot. This was seen as an act promoting enmity and hatred between different groups on the ground of religion and thus urged the Secretary of Maha Sivaratri Committee of Kalady Temple to approach the Court.
One of the accused named Pradeep RS. is the General Secretary of the party named Antharastra Hindu Parishad. The accused had published a post on his Facebook page after the aforesaid incident took place. In the post, he admitted the involvement of his party members in the incident and also justified the incident. On the basis of this post, he was accused of promoting enmity between the Hindus of the locality and the Christians. The accused in his bail petition submitted that he is innocent as he was not even present at the site of the incident and his Facebook post does not promote enmity as it does not refer to any religion or community in particular. The Public Prosecutor, however, tried to convince the court that the accused should be charged for offenses under Section 153-A and should not be given bail. The Judge while considering the bail matter of the accused made comments on the maintainability of offenses under Section 153-A of IPC. The Court observed:
"Real intention to incite one group or community against another is essential. At least two groups or communities must be involved. Merely inciting the feelings of one community or group without any reference to any other community or group cannot attract the provision of Section 153-A IPC."
The Court in its further observations also stated that the accused cannot be punished under Section 153-A of IPC as his Facebook post is only an admission regarding the involvement of the President of the Ernakulam division of Bajrang Dal and his supporters in the incident.
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