The Court was hearing a case filed against Keerthan Kumar and Sachin Kumar, both hailing from Dakshin Kannada district. The accused were booked by police under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, including Section 295 A, 447, and 506, following a complaint registered against them by cleric for entering a local mosque and shouting Jai Shri Ram.

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The High Court last month quashed the criminal proceedings against the persons booked for insulting religious belief of other communities by entering their place of workshop, shouting Jai Shree Ram and allegedly threatening them

On a night in September last year, the accused came on a bike, barged into the premises of the mosque and shouted ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans. When the cleric came out, the youth escaped the spot. The police later nabbed them by checking CCTV footage. The complaint given by the cleric stated that the youngsters after barging and shouting Jai Shri Ram, also  threatened that they would not let ‘Byaris’ (Muslims) live, according to a report by news portal Siasat.

However, while delivering the order, the High Court referred to a Supreme Court’s direction in a 2017 Mahendra Singh Dhoni v. Yerraguntla Shyamsundar case, saying that the top court had held that any and every act will not become an offense under Section 295A of the IPC and the acts which have no effect on bringing out peace or destruction of public order.

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The High Court observed that the alleged offense in the current case does not have any effect on public order. The Court stated, “Section 295A deals with deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs,” adding that the Court cannot understandable as to how if someone shouts ‘Jai Sriram’  would outrage the religious feeling of any class.

“When the complainant himself states that Hindus and Muslims are living in harmony in the area, the incident, by no stretch of imagination, can result in antimony,” the High Court said.

The petitioner’s counsel claimed that the mosque was a public place and therefore there was no case of criminal trespass and argued that shouting jai shri ram did not meet the requirement of an offense defined under Section 295A of the IPC.

However, the state government has opposed the petition to quash the case against the accused, stating that further investigation was required in the matter.