‘Cannot invoke atrocity charges for telephonic talk’

Ahmedabad: A quashing petition in the

Gujarat

high court has raised an issue whether utterance of casteist slur during a telephonic talk can attract charges under SC/ST Atrocities Act and whether it can be considered words spoken at a public place.The petition has been filed by one

Melabhai Rabari

from Rajoda village of Bavla taluka. He has urged the high court to quash an FIR lodged against him under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act with Bavla police station on May 6.Rabari was booked after an advocate, Hitesh Jadav, complained that on April 20, he heard an audio clip of a telephonic conversation between Rabari, Paresh Patel and

Kishor Thakkar

, in which

Rabari

uttered prohibited caste name. He came across the audio clip on social media. The trio was speaking about people’s protest against the construction of a mosque on government land in Rasham village. People submitted a representation to the taluka development officer against the construction, but they were not invited to participate during tendering of the memorandum to government official. While expressing his grouse, Rabari used casteist slur.Four days after registration of the FIR, Rabari moved the HC and his advocate sought hearing before the vacation bench. It was submitted that the atrocities charges were invoked for a telephonic talk during a conference call, which is not a public place. The invocation of these charges requires an utterance or use of prohibited words in public places.Sources said that the petition has taken a ground that a conversation that takes place on telephone cannot be treated as a comment made in a public place and hence it does not attract charges under the Atrocities Act. The HC has posted hearing on this petition on Friday.