Court rejects the professor's plea to quash the case

Case of making objectionable posts about the Gyanvapi Shivalinga in 2022

New Delhi – Citing religious scriptures like the Shiv Puran, the Delhi High Court dismissed a plea filed by Hindu College associate professor of history, Dr Ratan Lal, seeking to quash an FIR registered against him for commission of offences punishable under Sections 153A and 295A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Section 153A pertains to acts promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and race and 295-A relates to acts intended to outrage religious feelings.

“This court is of the view that prima facie, the petitioner has created disturbance to the harmony of society and this court has also found that the said tweet/post was made with the intention to hurt the sentiments of a large number of (people),” the bench of Justice Chandra Dhari Singh ruled Tuesday.

The professor had in May 2022 posted on social media on the claims of a ‘Shivalinga’ being found at the Gyanvapi complex in Varanasi.

What is the case ?

Ratan Lal is an assistant professor in the Department of History at Delhi University. In May 2022, when Hindus were talking about finding a Shivalinga in the Gyanvapi case, Ratan Lal had made an objectionable post on his X and Facebook accounts. In this post, made on 14th May 2022, he wrote, ‘If this is a Shivalinga, then it seems that Shiva was also circumcised.’ Ratan Lal had also added a laughing cartoon to this post. After this, a case was registered against him and he was arrested. He was later released on bail. Now he had sought acquittal, which was rejected.