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2017 (4) TMI 1565 - SUPREME COURTSeeking transfer of proceedings, pending before the learned Additional Judicial First Class Magistrate, Anantpur, Andhra Pradesh to the Court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at Bangalore in Karnataka - allegations made in the complaint constitute an offence Under Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code or not - whether this Court, in the obtaining factual matrix, relegate the trial at some other place or grant him liberty to file an application Under Section 482 Code of Criminal Procedure for quashing? HELD THAT:- Section 295A does not stipulate everything to be penalised and any and every act would tantamount to insult or attempt to insult the religion or the religious beliefs of class of citizens. It penalise only those acts of insults to or those varieties of attempts to insult the religion or religious belief of a class of citizens which are perpetrated with the deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of that class of citizens. Insults to religion offered unwittingly or carelessly or without any deliberate or malicious intention to outrage the religious feelings of that class do not come within the Section - Emphasis has been laid on the calculated tendency of the said aggravated form of insult and also to disrupt the public order to invite the penalty. There is no hesitation in holding that the allegations remotely do not satisfy the essential ingredients of the offence and, therefore, applying the principle stated in STATE OF HARYANA VERSUS BHAJAN LAL [1990 (11) TMI 386 - SUPREME COURT], the complaint proceedings initiated against the Petitioner is quashed. In the case at hand, as the complaint is quashed, needless to say, for the reasons for which the complaint is quashed shall squarely apply to the co-accused, who is the Editor of the magazine. Therefore, the same principle is applied and the complaint even against co-accused is quashed. Petition disposed off.
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