New Delhi: 

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that courts are not supposed to do moral policing while setting aside the Punjab and Haryana High Court order imposing a fine of Rs 10 lakh on political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla for mocking Jain monk Tarun Sagar.

The apex court decided to quash the 2019 order of the high court which had directed Poonawala and Dadlani to pay costs. The HC had also said that the fine was imposed to give a message so that no one mocked the heads of religious sects.

The matter was heard by a bench comprising Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan. The bench observed that the High Court should not have imposed costs on Poonawala and on musician Vishal Dadlani after holding that no offence was made out against them.

The bench said that perusal of the impugned judgement shows that the HC upheld the fundamental right of the appellant of freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. "After holding that no offence was made out against the appellant there was no question of imposing cost on the appellant and other petitioner," said the apex court.

The top court said it is of the view that after finding that absolutely no offence was made out when exercising jurisdiction under Section 482 of the CrPC, the HC ought not to have exercised advisory jurisdiction by telling the appellant that the contribution made by the priest was much more than what the appellant and the other accused have contributed. The top court made it clear that it is not the function of the courts to do moral policing and added that the HC was swayed by the fact that the appellant criticised a priest belonging to a particular religion. "What kind of order is this?

There was no question of imposing cost. The court acquitted the appellants but imposed costs. Courts are not supposed to do moral policing," the bench said.

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