By Narsi Benwal
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday was informed that the Maharashtra government has refused to grant sanction to ‘prosecute’ Vikram Pawaskar, the former BJP State Vice President, in two cases of ‘hate speech’ against the Muslim community.
A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Dr Neela Gokhale accepted the statement made by State’s Chief Public Prosecutor Hiten Venegavkar, who informed the judges that the Home Department of Maharashtra, has refused to grant sanction to prosecute Pawaskar under sections 153A (promoting enmity between two groups) and 295A (outraging religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), invoked against him at two separate police stations in Satara district for delivering hate speech.
The judges sought to know if Pawaskar is booked under any other provision of law for which he would not require a sanction, to which Venegavkar told the bench that since there has been no repercussions of the speech, no other offence is made out or invoked.
“What nothing happened? What is this? An offence is committed as soon as hate speech is made… you can’t wait for the repercussions,” Justice Mohite-Dere orally remarked.
The judges further underlined that the sanctioning authority must ‘apply its own mind’ and that is always expected in such matters.
The bench noted that besides sections 153A and 295, Pawaskar is also booked under section 298 of the IPC (deliberate act of hurting religious feelings). The judges sought to know from Venegavkar if the prosecution would proceed with the said charge against Pawaskar since the same would not require a prior sanction, as needed for sections 153A and 295.
This story was originally published in livelaw.in. Read the full story here.