CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has quashed an FIR registered against a person for riding a motorcycle without helmet and without wearing the mask during the Covid-19 pandemic, and when stopped within the Madhupatna police station limits in Cuttack abusing the cops in slang language on April 22, 2020.
The court said no offence was made out against him.
The FIR was registered against Priya Ranjan Nayak, an engineer working in a private company. The charge sheet was filed on July 19, 2020 under different sections of IPC, the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, and Motor Vehicle Act, 1954, and the case was pending in the court of the Judicial Magistrate First Class (City), Cuttack.
Nayak had filed a petition challenging the FIR in 2023. Senior advocate Milan Kanungo along with advocate Sidharth Das argued on the petitioner’s behalf.
While disposing of the petition recently, the singe judge bench of Justice Sibo Sankar Mishra said the authority concerned was free to impose a reasonable amount of fine upon the petitioner for riding motorcycle without a helmet.
However, apart from the portion of the FIR that he abused the police officials in slang language, the rest, in fact, does not attract any offence, as there is no crime involved, Justice Mishra said.
“It is evident that the offence does not involve moral turpitude, or threaten the public order or affect the fabric of the society. Rather, the alleged crime, if any, has been committed by the petitioner during the prevalence of the COVID-19 pandemic was a culmination of stress sans any criminal intent,” he observed.