Bengaluru, July 21 (IANS). The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday quashed the FIR lodged against a 20-year-old college student. The student had sent a private Instagram message to his female classmate praising her. The court said that using ‘Gen Z language’ in private conversations cannot be considered a crime like stalking, voyeurism or hurting the dignity of a woman.
A single-judge bench of Justice M. Nagaprasanna said that criminal law cannot be invoked merely because a student has praised his classmate in a private conversation. He warned that such cases could have a negative impact on the future of young people.
The case pertained to a conversation on Instagram between the petitioner and his 21-year-old classmate; Both were friends and studied in the same college. The petitioner had sent her direct messages calling her ‘pretty’ (cute) and ‘beautiful’ (beautiful), which the court termed as “gen-zee lingo”.
According to court records, this private message was later shown to the complainant’s father, who is a senior IPS officer. After this an FIR was registered against the student. The police booked him under various sections of the Indian Justice Code (BNS) and Section 66A of the Information Technology Act.
Hearing the case, Justice Nagaprasanna said that the conversation was not public and the language used reflected the way today’s students interact.
The court said, “This chat is not public. It is a conversation between two people. The language used in it is similar to what students use today. It cannot be considered a crime.”
The High Court said that a compliment given in a private conversation does not in itself constitute a crime like stalking, voyeurism or insulting the dignity of a woman.
The court also said that allowing the criminal proceedings to continue would be an abuse of the process of law and could unnecessarily jeopardize the future of the petitioner.
Subsequently, the Court quashed the FIR and directed the Investigating Officer to immediately return all the seized items, including electronic devices, to the petitioner.
–IANS
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