Former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was portrayed as Lord Vishnu on the cover of a business magazine in 2013. It was an innocent portrayal of the cricketer, holding in four hands, a Pepsi can, Dabur and Boost bottles and a cell phone.  Little did he, or the editor of the magazine realise that religious extremists would find an “insult” to the Hindu idol in this depiction. Such depictions have been common in this Hindu world of India.

But then, Dhoni was slapped with a criminal case for “hurting religious sentiments”. A slew of complaints was lodged by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s (VHP) Anantapur district vice-president, Yerraguntla Shyamsunder. The petition had asked Dhoni and the magazine’s editor to apologise.

The Anantapur court reacted by summoning the editor of the magazine Chaitanya Kalbag.

When the issue came to the Supreme Court, these religious extremists were taught a lesson in moderation and in common sense. The apex court not only threw out the case, but said that such unwitting or careless depictions can certainly not be inferred as “insults“ to religion. There should not be any prosecution in this as this would amount to misuse of law.

The Section 295A of IPC which was applied provides up to three years in jail for hurting religious sentiments. The apex court said this has to be interpreted and applied only for deliberate and malicious acts.

The bench of Justices Dipak Misra, AM Khanwilkar and MM Shantanagoudar observed: “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.”

—By India Legal Bureau