The Supreme Court on Friday said words in Rajya Sabha Congress MP poem did not promote disharmony or hatred or ill-will but encouraged people to desist from resorting to violence and face injustice with love.
Pratapgarhi was booked in Gujarat's Jamnagar for allegedly posting an edited video of a provocative song. The video features the recitation of a poem, and it was alleged the spoken words of the poem incite people to violence.
A bench of Justices Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said on a plain reading of the poem, it had nothing to do with any religion, caste, community or any particular group.
"The poem's words do not bring about or promote disharmony or feelings of hatred or ill-will. It only seeks to challenge the injustice made (sic) by the ruler. It is impossible to say that the words used by the appellant disturb or are likely to disturb public tranquility," the bench said.
The court went on, "By no stretch of (the) imagination does it promote enmity between different groups. We fail to understand how the statements therein are detrimental to national unity and how the statements will affect national unity. On its plain reading, the poem does not purport to affect anyone's religious feelings."
Referring to Section 196 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, the court said neither clause (a) nor clause (b) of the provision are attracted.
The bench observed that Pratapgarhi was not accused of organising any exercise, movement, drill or similar activity. "There is no allegation against the appellant that he uttered the words in any place of worship or in any assembly engaged in the performance of religious worship or religious ceremonies," the court added. He posted a video of a mass wedding ceremony, in the background of which the words are heard, therefore, section 196 had no application, it said.
The Congress MP challenged the 17 January order of the Gujarat High Court, which dismissed his petition to quash the FIR filed against him, saying the investigation was at a nascent stage.
On 3 January, Pratapgarhi was booked for the alleged provocative song in the backdrop of a mass wedding function he attended in Jamnagar. Among other sections, Pratapgarhi, national chairman of the Congress' minority cell, was booked under section 196 (promoting enmity between different groups on the basis of religion, race, etc.) and 197 (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The 46-second video clip, uploaded by Pratapgarhi on X, showed him being showered with flower petals as he walked waving his hands and a song playing in the background, which the FIR alleged contained lyrics that were provocative, detrimental to national unity and hurt religious feelings.
