‘Courts needn’t be used to harass celebrities’: HC quashes proceedings against Salman Khan

Justice Bharati H Dangre had on March 30 passed the order while hearing a plea filed by the actor and his bodyguard Mohd Nawaz Iqbal Shaikh against the magistrate court order that initiated proceedings against them, on the basis of a complaint filed by a journalist who claimed he was assaulted in 2019 by the actor’s bodyguards. The detailed order was made available on Tuesday.

“The judicial process need not be a means for needless harassment merely because the accused is a well-known celebrity and without adhering to the procedure of law, he shall not be subjected to unnecessary oppression at the hands of a complainant, who set in the machinery into motion to satisfy his vendetta and assumed that he was insulted by the cine star,” Justice Dangre noted.

Journalist Ashok Pandey had claimed that in April 2019, he, along with a cameraperson, had tried to film Khan while the actor was cycling, after taking permission from Khan’s bodyguards. But they allegedly manhandled him after Khan objected to the filming. He had also claimed that the D N Nagar police had refused to file a complaint, after which he filed a private complaint before the magistrate, seeking criminal action against Khan and Shaikh.

Last March, an Andheri magistrate court had issued summons against Khan and Shaikh under sections 504 (intentional insult) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.

Justice Dangre noted that “the words uttered in despair or a gesture, however frightful, by itself would not attract Section 504” and therefore, no offence is said to have been committed by the accused under section. The court added, “The allegations against the accused… apart from being an afterthought, in no case met the necessary ingredients of sections 504 and 506, which would have warranted the magistrate to take cognizance upon a complaint… Hence, the order deserves reversal.”

Setting aside the March 2022 magistrate court order, the HC said, “The magistrate has failed to follow the procedural mandate before taking cognizance of the complaint as per CrPC. This is a fit case where issuance of process against the applicants and continuation of the proceedings is nothing short of abuse (of) the process…”