[Sleeping remark against Mayor] "Better choice of words expected:" Bombay High Court to BJP MLA Ashish Shelar

The Bombay High Court on Thursday said that BJP leader and member of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly (MLA) Ashish Shelar should have employed better language when criticising city Mayor and Shiv Sena leader Kishori Pednekar

. A Bench of Justices PB Varale and AS Kilor said that while the public representatives have the liberty to raise issues of public importance, "being a respectable and sensible person, better choice of words is also expected."

The Court was hearing a plea by Shelar seeking quashing of the first information report (FIR) registered against him based on a complaint by Pednekar.

The dispute arose when Shelar held a press conference regarding a cylinder blast that took place at a chawl in Mumbai's Worli. While he was speaking about the reaction of the mayor to the unfortunate incident, he used the term 'sleeping' which aggrieved the mayor.

A complaint was filed by Pednekar who alleged that Shelar made derogatory remarks against her which carried double-meaning and outraged her modesty. The Mumbai Police filed an FIR based on the complaint which came to be challenged before the Bombay High Court.

. Advocate Rizwan Merchant, appearing for Shelar, prayed for directions to the Mumbai Police to not take any coercive steps against him.

. The Bench said while the petitioner is an MLA, the complainant is also holding a responsible position of representing the city.

It, therefore, suggested that the parties should try to amicably resolve the dispute in order to "send a good picture to the public" considering they were people's representatives.

. While the Bench granted time to the parties to think over a possible settlement, Additional Public Prosecutor Jayesh P Yagnik made a statement to the Court that no steps will be taken pursuant to the FIR including filing of the chargesheet till the next hearing which will be after 2 weeks.

. Shelar has stated in his plea that the FIR wilfully and maliciously levelled allegations against him with the sole motive to tarnish his image and cause mental trauma.

It was his contention that the conference had been held with respect to the “improper, irresponsible and insensitive governance” of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

He claimed to have promptly clarified that the term ‘sleeping’ used in the conference pertained to the lackadaisical manner in which the Mayor’s office worked with respect to the incident of cylinder blast.

Shelar’s plea stated that the “act of filing a false and malicious FIR is prima facie politically motivated, with the intention of causing a deterrence of speaking up against the government’s failures and dictatorship” .

[Sleeping remark against Mayor] "Better choice of words expected:" Bombay High Court to BJP MLA Ashish Shelar

Neha Joshi

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