Ingredients Of Section 353 IPC Not Fulfilled- Bombay HC Quashes FIR Against Advocate For Outraging Modesty Of Lady Officer

The Bombay High Court has quashed an FIR registered against an Advocate for outraging the modesty of a lady cop in 2013 during Ganpati immersion.

The Bench of Justice Nitin W. Sambre and Justice R.N. Laddha said that “The perusal of the contents of FIR depicts that the applicant appears to have not used any physical force so as to deter a public servant from discharge of official duty... words which are attributed to the applicant to have been used against the police officer cannot be claimed to be meant to outrage the modest of a woman or cannot be said to be with an intention to outrage the modesty of a woman.”

“This Court has already observed that offence under Section 353 cannot be inferred for want of necessary ingredients, so also there is no material to infer that there was intention on the part of the Applicant to outrage the modesty of a woman.” observed the Bench.

Advocate S.J. Mishra appeared for the applicant and APP A.R. Kapadnis appeared for the respondent-State.

In this case, the complaint was filed by a lady police officer, wherein it was claimed that during Ganpati immersion, the applicant under the influence of liquor had not only resisted the public officer but had conducted himself in the most indecent manner. FIR for offences punishable under Sections 353, 504, and 509 of the Indian Penal Code was registered.

The applicant approached the High Court and sought for quashing the FIR registered against him on the ground that the necessary ingredients of the sections were not satisfied.

The Court noted that on perusing the contents of FIR, it appeared that no physical force was used by the applicant to deter a public servant from discharging his official duty and for not cooperating with the lady police officer.

It further noted that the applicant had allegedly asked the lady police officer as to whether she intended to dance in the procession, which did not amount to outraging the modesty of a woman or could not be said to be with an intention to outrage the modesty of a woman.

Accordingly, the application was allowed, and the FIR was quashed.

Cause Title- Laxminarayan Mishra v. The State of Maharashtra & Ors.

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