Mumbai: People are nowadays sensitive about own caste but show no respect towards others, the Bombay High Court has said, quashing a case against a man for allegedly defaming Dr BR Ambedkar while reprimanding another person for his online post against Brahmin community.

Not every social media post/comment or speech needs a reaction and there are sophisticated ways to show dissent towards such things, the HC's Aurangabad division bench of Justices Vibha Kankanwadi and Sanjay Deshmukh said in its order on Wednesday.

The court quashed the proceedings and FIR registered against the petitioner, Devendra Patil, in August 2019 with the Daulatabad police in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

As per the complaint, the accused had called the complainant and reprimanded him for a social media post against the Brahmin community. The accused allegedly abused the complainant and defamed Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.

The court noted that the conversation between the accused and the complainant does not show any disrespect to Dr Ambedkar.

Rather the caller (accused) asked the informant as to why he was using the name of Dr Ambedkar when he was not following his footsteps. The accused further said that because of people (like the complainant), nowadays the respect for Ambedkar has reduced, the HC noted.

"This conversation in no way showed disrespect to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar or depicted any intention to disrespect or disturb harmony between two communities," the HC said quashing the case.

Another important fact is that the accused was only reacting to a provocative post uploaded by the complainant on his social media against the Brahmin community, it said.

"Person from only one community then cannot have the right to object when he himself has done some provocative act. There has to be reciprocal respect for persons amongst all communities and castes. That is what the soul of the constitutional scheme is," the HC said.

"Nowadays, everybody is sensitive about his own caste and community without showing any reciprocal respect to the other community or caste," the court said.

If neither community nor persons from one community/caste show restraint and if there are no efforts to bring harmony, such incidents would increase in future, the HC said, adding it was not necessary that each and every bad post/comment or speech should be reacted to.

"There are sophisticated ways and means to show dissent to a person who uploads such provocative posts," the bench said.

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