'Dialogues Fundamentally Hilarious, Futile To Find Elements Of Hate Speech: Calcutta HC Quashes FIR Against Mithun Chakraborty For Alleged Hate Speech, Stays Investigation

The Calcutta High Court on Thursday quashed the FIR registered against renowned actor and BJP leader Mithun Chakraborty by a member of the TMC party over his alleged 'hate speech' at an election rally at Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata on March 7, 2021. The Court also stayed any further police investigation into the matter.

Justice Kaushik Chandra observed that Chakraborty had not intended to promote the feeling of enmity, hatred, or ill-will between different religious, racial, linguistic or regional groups or castes or communities when he uttered the alleged dialogues during the political rally and thus the ingredients of offences under Sections 153A, 504, and 505 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 are absent.

"The two dialogues in question are fundamentally funny, hilarious, and entertaining; it is futile to try to find the elements of hate speech in them. A reasonable man in the context or circumstances in which the said two dialogues were uttered cannot view them as an expression of hatred", Justice Chanda further observed.

Background

After joining the BJP, Chakraborty, in a political rally at Brigade Parade Ground at Kolkata on March 7, 2021 had allegedly uttered dialogues like "marbo ekhane lash porbe shoshane (I will hit you here and the body will fall in the crematorium)" and "ek chobole chabi' (just one snakebite and you will become a photograph) from two famous Bengali movies.

Pursuant to this, on May 06, 20201, an FIR was filed by TMC party member alleging that these dialogues were a cause for post-poll violence in the state and that he was responsible for post-poll violence and thereafter, a case had been registered u/s 153A/504/505/34 of IPC.

The FIR further suggested that Chakraborty being a a public figure and icon of Bengal, his statement and in the manner in which such statement was made instigated and provoked the opposition party workers to attack members of the ruling TMC party.

Thereafter, Chakraborty had filed the instant petition for quashing of the FIR registered against him and further submitted that the utterances of such film dialogues were only recreational and that he was innocent and in no way connected with any offence as alleged by the complainant.

Observations

The Court at the outset placed reliance on the Supreme Court judgment in Amish Devgan v. Union of India wherein it was held that a particular imputation is capable of being conveyed means and implies that it is reasonably so capable and should not be strained, forced or subjected to utterly unreasonable interpretation. The Court further noted that other important factors such as the time and circumstances in which the words or speech was made, the state of feeling between the two communities, etc. and the proximate nexus with the protected harm have to be satisfied in order to cumulatively satiate the test of "hate speech". Thus, the Court opined that in the instant case, the tests laid down in Amish Devgan are not satisfied and thus the alleged comments would not fall within the purview of 'hate speech'.

Furthermore, Justic Chanda opined that there is no need to resort to any 'complex theories' to appreciate whether the utterance of the alleged two dialogues would amount to hate speech. He remarked that there exists a general practice of film stars trying to entertain voters by using cinematic dialogues.

"The petitioner is a popular matinee idol. The involvement of film stars in politics in the country is nothing new. It is also well known that film stars try to entertain and attract voters by saying cinematic dialogues in political rallies. The case in hand is no exception. It is a matter of fact that the dialogues "Marbo Ekhane Laash Porbe Shoshaney" and Choboley Chobi" are the two popular dialogues of the petitioner from the Bengali movies namely, "M.L.A. Fatakeshto" and "Abhimanyu" respectively", the Court opined further.

It was further noted that the utterance of the dialogues are not in dispute and that the petitioner had himself admitted that on many occasions due to public demand, he had uttered movie dialogues to entertain the general public.

It was observed further that the dialogues had been uttered on March 7, 2021 whereas the instant complaint had been registered with the police on May 6, 2021, after the announcement of the West Bengal Assembly Election result on May 2, 2021. Opining that there is no 'proximate nexus', the Court remarked,

"Even if the effect of such utterance is judged from the standard of weak and vacillating minds, it cannot be said that there is any proximate nexus between the dialogues uttered by the petitioner and the widespread violence that took place in the State after the Assembly Election."

The Court thus proceeded to quash the registered FIR in exercise of powers conferred under Section 482 of CrPC in order to prevent the abuse of the process of law.

Justice Chanda also stayed any further investigation into the matter as it would amount to a 'vexatious exercise'.

"I am of the view that since the petitioner does not deny the fact that he uttered the said dialogues and the context in which the said dialogues were delivered is also not denied, any further police investigation of the present case will be an unnecessary and vexatious exercise", the Court held further.

Case Title: Mithun Chakraborty v. State of West Bengal and Ors 

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