North News
Mumbai, August 23
Written words, whether through email or on social media, that can lower the dignity of a woman constitute an offence, the Bombay High Court ruled while rejecting a plea to quash a case against a man, the news outlet Business Standard reported. A division bench comprising Justices A S Gadkari and Neela Gokhale dismissed the petition filed by a man seeking to quash a 2009 case filed under Section 509 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which pertains to insulting the modesty of a woman.
The man allegedly sent offensive and insulting emails to a woman in his South Mumbai residential society, with the emails making derogatory comments about her character and being forwarded to other society members. He argued that Section 509 should only apply to spoken words and not written words in emails or social media posts. However, the court observed that defamatory emails could indeed constitute an offence under Section 509 of the IPC, according to The Indian Express.
The court clarified that the term “utterance” under Section 509 encompasses not only spoken words but also objectionable written content in emails or social media posts. While the court did not quash the FIR, it did partially allow the plea by removing charges under Sections 354 (use of criminal force to outrage the modesty of a woman) and 506(2) (criminal intimidation) of the IPC, stating that these offences were not substantiated.
The complainant claimed that the petitioner exploited her elderly mother’s illness to usurp the chairperson’s position and sent defamatory and threatening emails. Senior advocate Haresh Jagtiani, representing the petitioner, argued that the FIR was filed out of vendetta due to existing animosity between the petitioner and the woman’s family, the news outlet said.
