In a temporary relief for well-known political commentator and Delhi University academic Apoorvanand Jha, the Punjab and Haryana high court has stayed proceedings in furtherance of a First Information Report (FIR) registered against him for allegedly offending religious sentiments and promoting communal disharmony by writing an article. The single bench of justice Shekher Dhawan stayed the proceedings while issuing notice on the petition filed by Jha under Section 482 of code of criminal procedure for quashing the FIR.The FIR was registered for offences under Sections 153A and 295A of Indian Penal Code, based on a complaint by a Yamunangar resident who alleged that Jha’s article, titled ‘Gujarat Loses Battle With Itself’ and published by the Tribune, offended religious sentiments and promoted communal disharmony.In the article, written in the backdrop of the BJP winning assembly elections in Gujarat in December 2017, Jha had said that there was deep segregation between Hindus and Muslims in Gujarat and that Hindus were completely disconnected from Muslims and ignorant of their ways.Also read: Artist Who Painted Hindu Gods on Slippers Did Not Mean to Hurt Religious Sentiments: Bombay HCIn this context, the author had said, “You would come across Hindu youth who do not know what kind of an animal a Muslim is.” According to the complainant, this was offensive to religious sentiments and capable of promoting disharmony. He said that his Muslim friends stopped talking to him as a consequence of the publication of the article. The complaint was forwarded by the judicial magistrate under Section 156(3) of the CrPC for registering the FIR.Harish Khare, former editor-in-chief of the Tribune, was also named as an accused. Both Jha and Khare were granted anticipatory bail by the additional sessions court in Yamunanagar, where the judge had stated, “From the joint reading of the whole text and without giving too much stress/emphasis on these isolated words, it does not transpire that there was any prima facie intention or mens rea to cause disorder or incite people to violence rather the Article deals with the functioning of a political party in a particular State i.e. Gujarat and has dealt with the political state of affairs in Gujarat.”Representing Jha in the high court, senior advocate Anupam Gupta – with assistance from Neha Sonawane and Arjun Sheoran – argued that the FIR was an abuse of the process of law as no offence was made out on the face of it; one sentence of the article was taken out of context by the complainant to make allegations against the author. The complainant misquoted and misinterpreted the entire meaning of the article, which showed that the FIR was filed with oblique motives, argued Gupta.Also read: Gujarat, Centre Issued Notices Over PIL Claiming PokemonGo Hurts Religious Sentiments“It is evident from a reading of the article in question that the petitioner had no such intention, whether deliberate, malicious or otherwise, of causing disorder or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will or of outraging the feelings of any class. The instant article was only intended to be a piece of opinion analysing the circumstances behind the victory of a political party, the BJP, in the Gujarat elections”, said the petition filed by Jha.It was argued that Jha had always stood for secularism, the rights of minorities and communal harmony and was being targeted for his fair comments. It was further argued that even the judicial magistrate, who passed the order for registration of the FIR, did not apply his mind and passed the order mechanically.This article was first published on LiveLaw. Read the original here.