The court upheld that social media posts damaging national dignity may constitute criminal offences, and such allegations warrant further investigative proceedings.

JUDGMENT (PER : RAJESH S. PATIL, J.) :-

1) By this Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India r/w Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure , the Petitioner is seeking quashing of First Information Report (FIR) No. 178 of 2025, dated 15^th May 2025, registered with Kalepadal Police Station, Pune, for the offences punishable under Sections 152 , 196, 197, 352 and 353 of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, 2023 (for short ‘BNS 2023’).

2) Heard Mr. Sathe, learned Advocate for the Petitioner and Smt. Deshmukh, learned APP for State. Perused entire record produced before us.

3) In the FIR it is alleged that, both the Petitioner and the first informant are residing in the same Housing Society in Pune City, known as Margosa Heights. A WhatsApp group was created by a female member of the Society, only for the females residing in the Society named as 'Sath Sath Margosa Ladies'. Around 380 female members became part of this WhatsApp group. On 7^th May 2025, the Indian Armed Forces carried out 'Operation Sindoor' thereby destroying terrorist launch pads situated in and around the neighbouring country. The members of the WhatsApp group of 'Sath Sath Margosa Ladies' started praising the Indian Armed Forces for conducting 'Operation Sindoor'. Many members of the group started sending their commending messages in the group. The Petitioner at the same time sent a message stating that, 'we have T.V. and mobiles, therefore, the group should not be used as a National News Channel' to which one of the group member replied saying that, it was perfect time to show solidarity towards the Nation, Army and Prime Minister, ending her message with words ‘Jai Hind, Jai Bharat’. To which a few other members replied 'Jai Hind'. Immediately the Petitioner reacted with laughing emoji. Thereafter there were certain exchange of WhatsApp messages. The Petitioner subsequently sent few more messages on the said WhatsApp group and also updated WhatsApp status with a link of a Facebook video to which some of the members of the WhatsApp group who were known to the Petitioner, objected. The Petitioner went ahead and also sent further messages which were against the Prime Minister and also against the country. Based on such WhatsApp messages sent by the Petitioner, the FIR was lodged by the First Informant against the Petitioner.

4) It is contended by the Petitioner that, the Petitioner was mentally not in a sound condition, when the alleged incident took place. As soon as the Petitioner realized that, few members of the WhatsApp group, including Complainant, did not compliment the messages which were sent by the Petitioner, she immediately deleted those WhatsApp messages. It is also further contended, that the Petitioner had in fact apologized to the Complainant, when the Complainant expressed her condemnation towards the messages posted by the Petitioner. The Petitioner is already at a loss as she was expelled from the school where she was teaching. The notice under Section 41 -A of the Code of Criminal Procedure was not served by a recognized method. The said notice was served on WhatsApp belatedly. There are no merits in the contents of the FIR, hence no purpose would be served if the FIR is kept pending. Therefore, the FIR requires to be quashed and set aside.

5) Per contra, learned APP strongly opposed the quashing of the FIR and s