Delhi High Court Issues Notice On Sanjay Raut's Plea For Quashing FIR Over Alleged Use Of Abuses In An Interview

The Delhi High Court has issued notice on a petition filed by Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut seeking quashing of an FIR registered against him in December last year for allegedly using abuses, expletives while giving an interview to TV9 Marathi channel.

Justice Mukta Gupta issued notice on the plea on Tuesday while posting the matter for further hearing on April 6.

About the Case

The FIR was registered on the basis of a complaint filed by Deepti Bharadwaj, National General Secretary of Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) Mahila Morcha under sec. 500 and 509 of the Indian Penal Code.

Sanjay Raut had appeared before the channel on September 9 last year for giving a live interview wherein he was interviewed over a photograph which was circulated on Twitter wherein he had offered a chair to the President of NCP, Sharad Pawar.

During the said interview, some political allegations were raised against Raut that he had shown that his allegiance was shifting to Sharad Pawar by offering a chair to him.

Responding to the said allegations, Raut had stated in the interview that it was Maharashtra's culture to respect elders and that he would have offered a chair if others like Late Vajpayee or LK Advani had been there. 

On being asked some more questions on the subject, Raut had allegedly responded with certain expletives and abuses. Accordingly, the complaint was filed alleging that Raut had outraged the modesty of the female political workers.

In the petition seeking quashing of the FIR in question, Raut has averred that the facts in the FIR did not establish any offence under sec. 500 and 509 of the IPC.

It has also been stated that no reasonable person would conclude that the alleged utterances had a "pernicious effect on the reputation of any person, let alone any generic class of political workers, or had the effect or tendency to outrage the modesty of any particular female political worker or class of workers."

It has thus been argued that the words used were not defamatory or targeted towards insulting any woman that the allegations made against Raut were frivolous and made with an ulterior motive.

Advocate Shreeyash U. Lalit appeared for the petitioner whereas ASC Nandita Rao appeared for the State.

Case Title: Sanjay Rajaram Raut v. State (NCT of Delhi) and Anr.