Section 295A of the

Indian Penal Code The Indian Penal Code (IPC) was the official criminal code of the Republic of India, inherited from British India after independence. It remained in force until it was repealed and replaced by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) in December 2023 ...

lays down the punishment for the deliberate and malicious acts, that are intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs. It is one of the

Hate speech laws in India The hate speech laws in India aim to prevent discord among its many ethnic and religious communities. The laws allow a citizen to seek the punishment of anyone who shows the citizen disrespect "on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, resi ...

. This law prohibits

blasphemy Blasphemy refers to an insult that shows contempt, disrespect or lack of Reverence (emotion), reverence concerning a deity, an object considered sacred, or something considered Sanctity of life, inviolable. Some religions, especially Abrahamic o ...

against all religions in India. Section 295A is a cognisable, non-bailable, and non-compoundable offence. Legal experts consider Section 295A a controversial provision. They believe that there are good legal arguments for the court to revisit and consider overruling the constitution bench judgement in ''Ramji Lal Modi v. State of UP''.

History

Section 295(A) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was enacted in 1927 by the British Parliament. A book, ''

Rangila Rasul Rangila Rasul or Rangeela Rasool (: "These opening lines of the provocative Rangila Rasul he Colourful Prophet a slim volume published in 1924 in colonial north India, masqueraded as an innocuous ‘celebration’ of the ‘Prophet of Many Wiv ...

'', was published in 1927. The book concerned the

marriages Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

and sex life of

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

. On the basis of a complaint, the publisher was arrested but later acquitted in April 1929 because there was no law against insult to religion. The publisher was murdered in Court by Ilm-ud-din. As a result, Ilm-ud-din was honored with the honorifics 'Ghazi' and 'Shaheed'. As the book did not cause enmity or hatred between different religious communities, it didn't violate Section 153(A). The Indian Muslim community demanded a law against insult to religious feelings. Hence, the British Government enacted Section 295(A). The Select Committee before enactment of the law, stated in its report that the purpose was to punish persons who indulge in wanton vilification or attacks upon other religions or their religious figures. It however added that a writer might insult a religion to facilitate social reform by grabbing attention. Therefore, it recommended that the words ''with deliberate and malicious intention'' be inserted in the Section.

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Notable cases

* In 2022,

Nupur Sharma Nupur Sharma (born 23 April 1985) is an Indian politician. She was the national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) until June 2022. She frequently represented BJP on Indian television debates as an official spokesperson. In June 2 ...

, a spokeswoman of India's ruling party,

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

(BJP), made "controversial remarks" about the Islamic prophet Muhammad, on a

Times Now Times Now is an English-language news channel in India owned and operated by The Times Group. The channel launched on 23 January 2006 in partnership with Reuters. It is a pay television throughout India. Until 2016, it was India's most popula ...

debate on the

Gyanvapi Mosque The Gyanvapi Mosque is a mosque located in Varanasi, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. The mosque was constructed in Common Era, CE, a decade after Aurangzeb's demolition of a Shiva Hindu temple that was on the site. Vishweshwar temple ...

dispute. This led to the 2022 Muhammad remarks controversy after which she was booked under Section 295A, 153, 153A but not arrested. * In July 2022,

Alt News Alt News is an Indian non-profit fact checking website founded and run by former software engineer Pratik Sinha and Mohammed Zubair. It was launched on 9 February 2017 to combat fake news. Alt News was a signatory partner of the Internation ...

, an Indian

fact checking A fact is a true datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance. Standard reference works are often used to check facts. Scientific facts are verified by repeatable careful observation or measurement by experiments or other means. For e ...

site's co-founder Mohammed Zubair was arrested by

Delhi Police The Delhi Police (DP) is the law enforcement agency for the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Delhi Police falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. In 2024, the sanctioned strength of Delhi Police w ...

for allegedly "hurting religious sentiments". The charges under IPC section 295A and section 67 of the IT Act were pressed for a satirical tweet he made in 2018, in which he shared an unedited screenshot from a 1983 Indian comedy film '' Kissi Se Na Kehna'' by

Hrishikesh Mukherjee Hrishikesh Mukherjee (30 September 1922 – 27 August 2006) was an Indian film director, editor and writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of Indian cinema. Popularly known as ''Hrishi-da'', he directed 42 films during his car ...

History

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Notable cases

References

Further reading