Karnataka HC Quashes Case Over ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ Slogan at BJP Protest [Read Order]

Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has quashed criminal proceedings against a man accused of raising the slogan “Pakistan Zindabad” during a protest by Bharatiya Janata Party followers, holding that the ingredients of Section 153 of the Indian Penal Code were not attracted and that no prior sanction had been obtained for the offence under Section 505.

Justice V Srishananda was hearing a petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution, read with Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, seeking to quash C.C. No. 712/2024 pending before the Principal Senior Civil Judge and CJM, Mandya, for offences under Sections 153B and 505(1)(b) IPC. The case arose from Crime No. 30/2024 of Mandya West Police Station, registered on the complaint of the second respondent.

The complaint alleged that on 18.12.2022, persons claiming to be BJP followers raised the slogan at a protest, and the complainant was disturbed on seeing a video of it. The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the slogan was unintentional and a slip of the tongue in the force of protest, with “Pakistan Murdabad” intended, and that there was no intention to cause unrest or affect any community.

The State argued that the video furnished by the complainant clearly contained the slogan, and that the charge-sheet recorded that the demonstration followed an objectionable statement by Pakistan’s Foreign Minister and that the slogan was raised purposefully to create unrest.

The court observed that it was “highly unimaginable that the protesters therein would raise the slogan ‘Pakistan Zindabad’” at a demonstration organised by a political party, and accepted that the word had crept in by mistake. It also noted that the complaint, based on a YouTube video, was lodged two years after the incident, and that the investigating agency could not establish who participated or that any unrest resulted among any community or the public.

Relying on its earlier decision in K. M. Basha alias Mehaboob Basha v. State of Karnataka (Criminal Petition No. 201668/2022), the court noted that prior sanction under Section 196(1)(a) of the CrPC is necessary for an offence under Section 505 IPC. It found that no sanction had been obtained before the Magistrate took cognizance.

Holding that the ingredients of Section 153 were not attracted and that the absence of sanction vitiated the Section 505 charge, the court said continuation of the case would amount to abuse of process of law. 

The writ petition was allowed and the proceedings in C.C. No. 712/2024 were quashed insofar as the petitioner is concerned.

Case Title: D. S. Ravi Kumar vs. State of Karnataka & Anr., Writ Petition No. 20693 of 2024 (GM-RES)

[Read Order]