Skit controversy: Karnataka High Court quashes criminal case against students, faculty of Jain Deemed-to-be University

The High Court of Karnataka has quashed criminal proceedings initiated against two members of the faculty and seven students of Centre for Management Studies (CMS) of Jain (Deemed-to-be) University on the allegation that they had insulted B.R. Ambedkar and Dalit communities in a skit enacted during the inter-collegiate Jain University Youth Fest-23 held in February 2023 in the city.

The High Court of Karnataka has quashed criminal proceedings initiated against two members of the faculty and seven students of Centre for Management Studies (CMS) of Jain (Deemed-to-be) University on the allegation that they had insulted B.R. Ambedkar and Dalit communities in a skit enacted during the inter-collegiate Jain University Youth Fest-23 held in February 2023 in the city.

Justice S.R. Krishna Kumar passed the order while allowing the petitions filed by Dinesh Nilkant Borker, Director of CMS, Prateek Thodkar P., assistant professor, and seven students.

Sections Sections 153-A, 149 and 295-A of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 3(1)(r)(s) and (v) of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, were invoked against the petitioners based on a complaint lodged by an assistant director of the Social Welfare Department of the State government.

“...the skit/short play performed by the petitioners was in the nature of satire/entertainment, which is protected under Article 19 of the Constitution of India, which guarantees freedom of speech and expression and the FIR clearly does not meet or satisfy the basic ingredients of the offences alleged against the petitioners,” the court observed.

It is pertinent to note that the FIR has not been lodged by a person, who is the member of the SC/ST community and there is no material to indicate that the petitioners had any specific intention to insult or intimidate with an intent to humiliate a member of SC/ST community in any place within a public view, the court observed further.

Moreover, the HC pointed out that a perusal of the complaint and the FIR as well as the transcript of the skit was sufficient to come to the conclusion that the “necessary ingredients constituting the alleged offences are conspicuously absent, especially when the skit was done for mere/sheer entertainment purposes and not with any intention to harm or humiliate any community or race nor make any reference to a particular religion or religious belief.”

The skit was performed as part of ‘MAD ADS’, an event organised during the festival to allow the students to portray their acting skills by authoring short skits.