The Supreme Court in the matter of Munawar v/s State of Madhya Pradesh granted bail to the comedian in a case that was registered against him for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.
The petitioner had challenged the criminal proceedings against him and prayed to quash the same.
The petitioner was arrested in Indore in 2021 by the police over allegations by the chief of the Hindutva Organization Hind Rakshak Sanghatan for allegedly making derogatory comments on Hindu gods during his stand-up.
After the rejection of the plea of the petitioner by the sessions court the petitioner moved to the High Court of Madhya Pradesh where the High Court denied the bail stating that no case is made out for bail considering the material seized and the statements of the witnesses the investigation is in progress.
The petitioner was charged under section 295– A of Ipc along with various other charges.
section 295-A deals with acts intended to outrage the feelings of any class deliberately and maliciously.
The supreme court observed that the law laid down in the Arnesh Kumar v/s State of Bihar was not followed by the Madhya Pradesh High Court as well as the procedure under section 41 of CrPc was not complied with while making the arrest.
Thus the supreme court granted bail to the petitioner and took into consideration the facts and circumstances and transferred all the complaints against the petitioner to Indore and granted interim protection to the petitioner as well as protection against the production of the warrant by the Delhi police for three days.
Guidelines given in Arnesh Kumar v/s State of Bihar are as follows-
- The police should arrest automatically a person for an offence u/sec 498 A of the Ipc unless it falls within the parameters of sec 41 of the IPC.
- The police officers be given a checklist containing clause u/sec 41(1)(b)(ii).
- The police officer must forward the checklist filled and furnished with reasons to the magistrate when producing the accused.
- The magistrate authorizing further detention must do so after considering the police report and duly recording the reasons furnished.
- Notice of appearance must be served upon the accused within two weeks of initiation of the case.
Failing to comply with these directions is punishable as contempt of court