NAURANG SINGH Vs. UNION TERRITORY CHANDIGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) -The police registered F. I. R. No. 458 dt. Sept. 14,1984, under Ss. 124-A and 153-A, I.P.C. at P. S. East, Chandigarh and it reads :-

(2.) The petitioner having made the speech in the meeting on Sept. 14, 1984, is named in the F. I. R. He has filed the present petition under S. 482, Cr. P. C. praying that his name be deleted therefrom.

(3.) The learned counsel for the petitioner has argued that the speech made by the petitioner on Sept. 4, 1984, is innocent and does not involve commission of any offence. He did not incite violence. He, of course, brought to the notice of the audience some facts which he believed to be true about the incidents that happened in the recent past and further expressed his resentment in relation thereto. The argument proceeds that the speech may involve the commission of offence if it incites or tends to incite violence in a reasonably normal person and in this context the reaction of an extra sensitive individual is irrelevant. There is hardly any justification to infer that the prevailing atmosphere at the time the speech was made was such that the same is capable of being interpreted to incite or tend to incite violence or disturb law and order and create disorder. The petitioner did not suggest any overt act even obliquely. His speech at best reflected his injurned feelings. He cannot be taken to have committed any offence, including one under S. 124-A, I. P. C. by publicly airing his resentment against the Army Action in the State and the consequence that followed. The petitioner has thus been wrongly named in the F. I. R. No. 458 dt. Sept. 14, 1984. His name may be deleted therefrom. Reliance has been placed on Kedar Nath Singh v. State of Bihar, A.I.R. 1962 SC 955.