BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court quashed proceedings against seven students and two faculty members of the Centre for Management Studies of Jain (Deemed-to-be University), based on a complaint filed by the Social Welfare Department over a controversial skit relating to Dr BR Ambedkar and Scheduled Castes they enacted during the Youth Fest-2023 in the city.
Justice SR Krishna Kumar passed the order recently while allowing two separate petitions filed by the students and faculty members -- Dinesh Nilkant Borkar, Director, and Prateek Thokdar P, Assistant Professor, Commerce Department, questioning the legality of the crime registered against them.
“...continuation of the impugned proceedings against the petitioners would amount to an abuse of process of law warranting interference by this court in the present petitions,” the judge said, quashing the proceedings.
The Centre for Management Studies of Jain organised the Youth Fest at Nimhans Convention Centre, in which, the students petitioners presented many programmes, including the skit.
The assistant director (Grade-I) of Social Welfare Department filed the complaint at Siddapura police station, based on a compact disk containing the video of the skit. The students and faculty were booked for the alleged offences under Sections 153-A, 149 and 295-A of IPC and Section 3(1(r ) (s) and (v) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, on February 10, 2023.
The court noted that a perusal of the complaint, First Information Report and the transcript of the skit are sufficient to conclude that the necessary ingredients constituting the said offences are conspicuously absent, especially when the skit was done for mere entertainment and not with any intention to harm or humiliate any community or race nor make any reference to a particular religion or religious belief.
The court said it is pertinent to note that the FIR was not filed by a person from the SC/ST community. There is no material to indicate that the petitioners had any specific intention to insult or intimidate with an intent to humiliate a member of the SC/ST community
Also, the skit was in the nature of satire or entertainment, which is constitutionally protected under Article 19 of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and expression.