The Bombay High Court has quashed an FIR filed against a man for making an objectionable post against Raksha Khadse, the BJP parliamentarian from Raver, Jalgaon and her alleged defaming. The HC said the post doesn't directly name Khadse or her party and, thus no case of defamation is to be made.
A bench of Justices Vishwas Jadhav and Sandipkumar More was hearing a plea filed by one Pramod Patil seeking to quash the FIR filed against him in June 2019 for making an objectionable post on Facebook.
The post in Marathi criticised Khadse for winning for a second consecutive time from Raver. It stated that she shouldn't take the constituency as if it's her father's property.
It roughly meant, "Presuming herself as Fututre Central Minister. Is it her father’s property? She is elected for second/next term and thus presuming herself to be a future Minister.”
This post didn't go down well with a follower of Khadse, who sought to sue Patil for defaming his leader. The complainant contended that he being the worker of BJP got hurt with the post and thus could legally sue Patil for defaming Raksha Khadse.
Taking note of the facts of the case, the judges said, "The Facebook post in question has not defamed in any manner a political party nor there is any comment by referring to the policy of the party for making the elected person twice as a Minister.
"Even assuming that the complainant being a political worker of the said party got hurt due to the said Facebook post of imputation against his leader, however, the said collection of persons being a party worker is indefinite and unidentifiable class. It cannot be said with certainty that all the political workers of the said party would be the persons aggrieved because of the said imputation of the Facebook post," the judges opined.
The bench accordingly quashed the FIR.
