Status on whatsapp, the court refused to cancel the case..!?
The bombay high court on monday warned that one should be very responsible while posting statuses on WhatsApp. A nagpur bench of the bombay high court on monday said that a person should act responsibly while communicating something to others through their whatsapp statuses. It also refused to quash a case against a person who posted hate speech against a religious group on his whatsapp status. In its order dated July 12, a division bench of Justices Vinay Joshi and Valmiki S.A. Menages said that in recent times, you can connect with your contacts through whatsapp status. Along with that, individuals also check their contacts' whatsapp status frequently, the court said. The bench dismissed the petition filed by 27-year-old kishore Landkar seeking to quash the FIR registered against him under the indian Penal Code for intentionally hurting religious sentiments or beliefs.
“WhatsApp status can be a picture or video of what you're doing, thinking, or something you've seen, which disappears after 24 hours. The purpose of whatsapp Status is to convey something to the person's contacts. It is nothing but a mode of communication with known persons,” the high court said. "Individuals must act responsibly when communicating something to others," the court said.
According to the complainant, the accused uploaded his whatsapp status in march 2023. In it, he wrote a question, and if you want a shocking answer to this question, search it on Google. When the complainant searched for the same query on google, he noticed objectionable content that provoked religious sentiments. The accused claimed that the status was not displayed with the intention or purpose of inflaming the sentiments of any religious group and the person can see my whatsapp status only if he has saved my number. He said that he had no intention to spread hatred. Noticing this, the court said in its order that due to the whatsapp status uploaded by the accused, the complainant had prompted the person to search google about this. The court held that the FIR prima facie reveals the deliberate and malicious intent of the accused to insult the sentiments of a particular group and refused to quash the case.
“Applicants cannot shirk their responsibility by saying that whatsapp status is limited circulation. There is no justification for the petitioner to have put such a status,” the high court said.
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