High court notice to Punjab on plea of Raveena Tandon, Farah Khan

The high court bench restrained Punjab Police from taking any coercive steps against the two in a case where they have been accused of hurting religious sentiments

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday put the Punjab government on notice on a plea from Bollywood actor Raveena Tandon and director Farah Khan, who have been booked by Punjab Police for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.

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The high court bench of justice Ashok Kumar Verma also restrained Punjab Police from taking any coercive steps against the two.

The two had moved the court, seeking quashing of the FIR registered against them in Ajnala on December 25 for deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings.

Their advocate, Abhinav Sood, said that Raveena and Farah were guests/participants and producer/anchor of a show telecast on a digital platform. There was nothing that could lead to the presumption that the act was intended to hurt the religious sentiments of a community, Sood told the court. Their act did not even remotely qualify to constitute an offence under Section 295-A of the Indian Penal Code, the court was told.

During the programme, Raveena and comedian Bharti Singh were asked to spell out a word and share its meaning. While Raveena spelt it correctly, Bharti misspelt it. It apparently meant that Bharti did not know the word and was referring to another word in Hindi, he told the court, adding there was no intention to hurt religious sentiments.