Overview
- A division bench of Justices Manish Pitale and Manjusha Deshpande on Tuesday set aside the FIR against Star Pravah’s programming head Shrabani Deodhar and executive producer Bhakti Apte.
- The case arose from an August 22, 2012 episode of the Marathi serial ‘Laxmi versus Saraswati’ in which a character used the word “mhara-poranchi” in a reference to the Mahar community.
- The bench held that a mere reference to a caste does not attract the Atrocities Act without intent to insult, intimidate or humiliate a specific SC/ST member in public view.
- The court noted the FIR never alleged the petitioners were non-SC/ST, a basic ingredient of Section 3(1)(x), and found the disputed words could not be attributed to the broadcaster executives.
- The order pertains only to the two Star Entertainment Media executives named in the petition, with the FIR having also named a director, scribe and actor whose positions were not decided in this ruling.