IMPORTANT POINT
The intention to cause disorder or incite the people to violence is the sine qua non of the offence under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code and the prosecution has to prove prima facie the existence of mens rea on the part of the accused. The matter complained of must be read as a whole.

Headnote:(i) Indian Penal Code, 1860 — Sections 153, 153A and 34 — Promoting feeling of enmity or hatred between different classes of people — Prosecution has to prove prima facie existence of mens rea on part of accused — Matter complained of within ambit of Section 153A must be read as a whole — One cannot rely on strongly worded and isolated passages for proving the charge — Effect of words must be judged from standards of reasonable, strong minded, firm and courageous men, and not those of weak and vacillating minds, nor of those who scent danger in every hostile point of view — It is standard of ordinary reasonable man.
       Held : Section 153A of IPC, as extracted hereinabove, covers a case where a person by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise, promotes or attempts to promote, disharmony or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities or acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony or is likely to disturb the public tranquility. The gist of the offence is the intention to promote feelings of enmity or hatred between different classes of people. The intention to cause disorder or incite the people to violence is the sine qua non of the offence under Section 153A of IPC and the prosecution has to prove prima facie the existence of mens rea on the part of the accused. The intention has to be judged primarily by the language of the book and the circumstances in which the book was written and published. The matter complained of within the ambit of Section 153A must be read as a whole. One cannot rely on strongly worded and isolated passages for proving the charge nor indeed can one take a sentence here and a sentence there and connect them by a meticulous process of inferential reasoning. (Para 14)
       The effect of the words must be judged from the standards of reasonable, strong-minded, firm and courageous men, and not those of weak and vacillating minds, nor of those who scent danger in every hostile point of view. It is the standard of ordinary reasonable man or as they say in English Law, “the man on the top of a clapham omnibus”. (Para 15)
       The common feature in both the Sections, viz., Sections 153A and 505 (2), being promotion of feeling of enmity, hatred or ill-will “between different” religious or racial or linguistic or regional groups or castes and communities, it is necessary that at least two such groups or communities should be involved. Further, it was observed that merely inciting the feeling of one community or group without any reference to any other community or group cannot attract either of the two Sections. (Para 16)
       (ii) Indian Penal Code, 1860 — Sections 153, 153A and 34 — Quashing of FIR for offence — Offending paragraph in a book entitled ‘Shivaji’ : Hindu King in Islamic India’ — Prosecution of publisher and printer of the book and also the author, USA Professor — Sustainability — Oxford University Press, India entered into an agreement for five years with the Oxford University Press, USA, for publishing in India a book entitled ‘Shivaji’ : Hindu King in Islamic India’ authored by a Professor of Religious Studies, USA — On release of book in India, appellants, publisher, printer and author had been asked to retract the objectionable statement complained of and tender an apology — Publisher issued orders to all its offices in India to immediately withdraw all copies of the book from circulation — A mob at Pune blackened face of a Sanskrit Scholar for having helped the author — A mob of 100 to 125 persons allegedly belonging to Shambhaji Brigade ransacked the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI), Pune and destroyed 18,000 books and 30,000 rare manuscripts — Four days after the alleged incident, State of Maharashtra registered FIR against the author and appellants u/Ss 153, 153A and 34 IPC — Whether paragraph complained of would attract the penal consequences envisaged in Section 153A of IPC — (No) — FIR held liable to be quashed as it does not disclose an offence and there is no need for any investigation.
       Held : Prof. James W. Laine, the author of the book, has exercised his reason and his own analytical skills before choosing any literature which he intends to include in his book. Even if the appellant-Manzer Sayeed Khan, a constituted Attorney of the Oxford University Press, India and the appellant-Vinod Hansraj Goyal, Proprietor of the Rashtriya Printing Press, Shahdara, Delhi, or the persons whose names are mentioned in the acknowledgement by the author, have provided information for the purpose, including the said paragraph in the book, it is important and worth observing that the author has mentioned that BORI, Pune has been his scholarly home in India and many people therein helped him for collecting the material. The author has given the names of many persons, who had helped him in one way or the other and enlightened him about the history of the historical hero ‘Shivaji’. The author has also mentioned in the book about the International Conference on Maharashtra, etc., which has given him a lot of material for inclusion in his book. As it appears from the records, BORI, Pune was established almost 90 years back and it has a great tradition of scholarly work. It is very improbable to imagine that any serious and intense scholar will attempt to malign the image of this glorious Institute. The author thought his work to be worth of dedication to his mother Marie Whitwell Laine, which was purely a scholarly pursuit and without any intention or motive to involve himself in trouble. It is the sole responsibility of the State to make positive efforts to resolve every possible conflict between any of the communities, castes or religions within the State and try every possible way to establish peace and harmony within the State under every and all circumstances. (Para 17)

JUDGMENT

Lokeshwar Singh Panta, J. — Leave granted.

2. Manzar Sayeed Khan and Vinod Hansraj Goyal have filed these two appeals against the common order dated 06.05.2004 of a Division Bench of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay in Criminal Writ Petition No. 280 of 2004 and 370 of 2004. By the impugned order, the High Court vacated the interim order granted on 23.02.2004 and directed the Crime Branch of the State of Maharashtra to complete the investigation in FIR No.10 of 2004 registered at the Deccan Police Station, Pune, against the appellants and author of the book titled “Shivaji Hindu King in Islamic India” under Sections 153, 153A and 34 of the Indian Penal Code [for short `IPC’].

3. The brief facts in both these appeals are practically identical.

Manzar Sayeed Khan, appellant herein, is a constituted Attorney of the Oxford University Press India, having been appointed on 21.06.2001 for a period of three years or for so long as he is employed as the Managing Director of the Oxford University Press India, which is a department of the University of Oxford, a legal entity with charitable status. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship and education, by publishing worldwide in Oxford, New York, Auckland, Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Chennai, Dar-es-Salaam, Delhi, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Karachi, Kolkata, Kuala Lumpur, Madrid, Melbourne, Mexico City, Mumbai, Nairobi, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Taipei, Tokyo, Toronto, etc. The Oxford University Press India entered into an agreement for five years with the Oxford University Press, USA, for publishing in India a paper bound book entitled “Shivaji : Hindu King in Islamic India” authored by Prof. James W. Laine, a Professor of Religious Studies, Macalester College, USA, on 28.05.2003. The said book was originally published by the Oxford University Press Inc., USA. As per the terms of the agreement, the Oxford University Press, India agreed to reprint the book without any changes or deletions. In all, 803 copies of the book were published, i.e., 488 copies in June and 315 copies in October 2003. The book was released in July 2003. 215 copies had been sold in July, 25 copies in August, 29 copies in September, 52 copies in October and 19 copies in November from the records available from the States of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka.

4. The Oxford University Press, India and the appellants had received a letter on 10.11.2003 from four Historians whereby the publisher and the author had been asked to retract the objectionable statement complained of and tender an apology. The Oxford University Press, India through appellant-Manzar Sayeed Khan, expressed regrets for the said statement and informed the objectors that instructions had been issued to all its offices in India to immediately withdraw all copies of the book from circulation. The copies of the letters dated 10.11.2003 and 21.11.2003 are annexed with the appeals and marked as Annexure P-3 (Colly.). It is the case of the appellants that sometime after withdrawal of the book from circulation, the appellants learnt that a mob at Pune had blackened the face of a Sanskrit Scholar, Shri Shashikant Bahulkar whose name appeared in the acknowledgement of the book, having helped the author Prof. James W. Laine, by providing him with some information during his visit to Pune. This incident was widely reported in the press. Prof. James W. Laine was pained by the unforeseen incident. On 28.12.2003, he sent a fax apologizing for the mistake, if any, committed in writing the passage and further stated that he only was responsible for the said statement written in the book, and the publisher was not at all responsible for the same. On 05.01.2004, a mob of 100 to 125 persons allegedly belonging to the Shambhaji Brigade ransacked the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI), Pune, and destroyed 18,000 books and 30,000 rare manuscripts. This incident was also widely reported in the press.

5. P