Giving a big relief to Bollywood actress Raveena Tandon, filmmaker Farah Khan and comedian Bharti Singh, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has stayed the police notices issued against them till July 14, 2025. These three artists are accused of hurting the religious sentiments of the Christian community during a show.
The case is of the year 2019, when Farah Khan hosted a show called “Backbenchers”. In this show, celebrities were invited and their general knowledge was tested.
According to the complainant, in this show, the accused had hurt the religious sentiments of the Christian community by comparing the word “Hallelujah” to an obscene word. Due to this, an FIR was registered against them in the year 2020.
No action will be taken against the petitioners
On Monday, a single bench of Justice Manisha Batra was hearing the matter. During the hearing, the counsel for the petitioners told the court that the concerned authorities have issued a notice under Section 35 of the Indian Justice Code asking them to join the investigation. On this, the court ordered that no action will be taken against the petitioners by the police till the next hearing on July 14, 2025.
The petitioners argued before the court that the program on the basis of which this FIR has been registered was not intended to insult any religion or community. He said that the show was organized solely for the purpose of entertainment and it was a non-fiction quiz show, in which there was no discussion on Christianity or related topics.
The FIR should be quashed
The petitioner stressed that to hurt someone’s religious sentiments, it is necessary that the act is done deliberately and with malicious intent. There was no such purpose in this case, so the FIR registered against the petitioners should be quashed.
It is also noteworthy that in the year 2022, the High Court had already ordered the state government not to take any repressive action against the petitioners.
