Supreme Court also dismissed the order of the Karnataka High Court.
The Supreme Court of India, on Monday, quashed the criminal case against India’s one-day cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni for allegedly hurting the communal sentiments by portraying himself as lord Vishnu on the cover of a business magazine.
Press Trust of India (PTI) reported that the case against Aroon Purie, the Editor-in-Chief of India Today was also quashed by the apex court on Monday.
The court, while passing the order, noted that the trial court in Karnataka did not follow the due procedures in initiating the legal action against the cricketer and summoning him and others in the case.
A bench comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and P C Pant also dismissed the order of the Karnataka High Court saying that there was no justification in the high court order. Earlier, the high court had refused to suspend the criminal proceedings against Dhoni.
“We disagree with the finding of the High Court. On plain reading of the judgments passed by this (apex) court, we find no justification in the HC order…,” said the court.
“We interfere with the order of the High Court and quash the proceedings including the summoning order against the accused… we have taken note of the complaint and the offense alleged while passing this order” the court added.
Jayakumar Hiremath, a social activist from Karnataka filed a case against Dhoni in a Bengaluru court for hurting the communal sentiments after the magazine portrayed him as lord Vishnu carrying several things in hands endorsed by him including a shoe.
The Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) had registered a case against Dhoni under section 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) along with 34 (common intention) of the IPC and asked him to summon before the court.
Dhoni had moved the High Court to dismiss the proceedings against him. But he had to approach the Supreme Court to get the case dismissed after the High Court refused to suspend the proceedings against him. He alleged in the Supreme Court that the case was filed just to harass him.
Taking into account his arguments, the Supreme Court suspended criminal action against Dhoni on September 14 last year.
In January this year, a court in Andhra Pradesh had issued a non-bailable warrant against Mahendra Singh Dhoni for allegedly offending the feelings of Hindu community by posing as Lord Vishnu on the cover page of a magazine.
Fortune Magazine had stoked a controversy with their depiction of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos as Lord Vishnu on the cover of their January 2016 edition, drawing outrage from Hindu community members across the US.