The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court ruled that actions such as ‘following, abusing, and pushing’ a woman, might be considered “annoying,” acts but do not amount to the offence of outraging modesty under IPC Section 354. Consequently, the court granted relief to a man who had been convicted by the Judicial Magistrate First Class Court in Wardha. Justice Anil Pansare acquitted the appellant, a 36-year-old labourer, saying the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
A college student had filed a police complaint against the man alleging that he had followed her a couple of times and abused her.
In her complaint, the college student mentioned that while she was going to a market, the man followed her on a bicycle and pushed/shoved her. The man was subsequently convicted by the magistrate’s court on May 9, 2016, and received a two-year rigorous imprisonment sentence. The sessions court later affirmed this verdict on July 10, 2023.
Hearing the man’s appeal, the High Court stated: “There is no evidence that the petitioner touched her inappropriately or targeted a specific part of her body to cause which made her position embarrassing… Merely because the applicant on bicycle pushed her, to my mind cannot be said to be an act which is capable of shocking the sense of her decency.”