Karnataka High Court quashes criminal case against two men accused of writing ‘Hijab is our dignity’ on school wall

The Karnataka High Court recently quashed criminal proceedings initiated against two men accused of writing a protest slogan: ‘Hijab is our dignity’, on the walls of a government school last year. [Muzammil & Anr v. State of Karnataka].The case was registered by the Hosapete Town Police Station under Section 3 of the Karnataka Open Places Disfigurement (Prevention) Act, 1981, which penalises unauthorised disfigurement by advertisement.Justice M Nagaprasanna said that for an incident to become an offence under Section 3 of the Act, Section 1 of the Act will have to be applied. Section 1 of the Act states that to bring a place or local area within the ambit of the Act, a notification by the State government is imperative. “It is an admitted fact that Hosapete Town is not the one that is notified to be coming within the Act, for the respondents to allege that the petitioners have incurred themselves the wrath of Section 3 of the Act. In the light of the fact that there is no notification issued by the State bringing in Hosapete Town under the Act, further proceedings if permitted to continue would become an abuse of the process of the law and result in miscarriage of justice,” the order said..The case was registered on a complaint filed by the headmaster of the Government Girls High School, Near CMC Hosapete, Vijayanagara. He alleged that when he entered the school premises on March 16 last year, the walls were painted “Hijab is our dignity” with black paint.After investigation, the police filed a chargesheet against the petitioners..Seeking quashing of the proceedings, they argued that Hosapete is not one of those areas which have been notified to be coming under the Act. However, the State argued that no notification is necessary under the Act to bring Hosapete Town under its ambit.The Court agreed with the petitioners and allowed their petition..Advocate Mohammed Azuruddin M represented the petitionersAdvocate V S Kalasurmath represented the State.[Read order]