The Allahabad High Court recently dismissed a criminal complaint filed against Samajwadi Party MLA Swami Prasad Maurya in 2014 for allegedly saying, “Goddess Gauri or Lord Ganesha should not be worshipped during weddings.”
A single-judge Justice Subhash Vidyarthi also quashed the order of the Court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Sultanpur passed in November 2014 summoning Maurya to face charges under Section 295A IPC.
The bench ordered thus while holding that the order taking cognizance of the complaint and summoning Maurya to face trial for commission of an offence under Section 295A IPC without obtaining the mandatory sanction of the Government as provided by Section 196 CrPC was not legal.
The proceedings against Maurya were initiated in response to a complaint alleging that on September 22, 2014, a news item about Maurya’s alleged statement was published in a Hindi daily newspaper, infringing on the complainant’s religious sentiments.
The complaint claimed that Maurya had knowingly offended the religious sentiments of Hindus. After taking statements under Sections 200 and 202 of the CrPC, the trial Court issued an order summoning Maurya to stand trial for violating Section 295-A of the IPC.
Maurya challenged the summoning order, arguing that the Court took cognizance of the complaint without the prior sanction of the Government required under Section 196 CrPC, and thus the summoning order is invalid in law.
Though Jayant Singh Tomar, for the state government, raised a preliminary objection that the ground raised by Maurya before the HC was not raised before the trial Court or the revisional Court, the bench stated that a new plea raising a pure question of law can be raised at any stage, as can a plea relating to the Court’s jurisdiction.
In light of this, finding cognizance of the complaint and order summoning Maurya to be bad in law, the bench allowed the plea and quashed the summoning order passed by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Sultanpur and the entire proceedings of the complaint.
