Punjab and Haryana High Court issues notice to Gurdas Maan

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, May 21

The Punjab and Haryana High Court today issued notice of motion to Punjabi singer Gurdas Maan facing allegations of hurting religious sentiments under Section 295-A of the IPC. The notice by Justice Sandeep Moudgil came on a petition seeking the setting aside of orders accepting the cancellation report filed by the police after probing the matter.

Appearing before Justice Moudgil’s Bench, petitioner Harjinder Singh alias Jinda and two others through counsel Ramandeep Singh Gill, AS Chahal, Jatin Bansal and Kartik Sharma submitted that an FIR with allegations under Section 295-A was registered on August 26, 2021, at the Nakodar City police station.

He added the assertions hurting the sentiments of a community by and large revolved around a video which went viral, wherein Mann passed a statement that Laddi Shah was a descendant of Guru Amar Dass. The statement was factually and historically incorrect.

Justice Moudgil’s Bench was also told that the petitioner’s specific case was based on a video recording supplied to the police and on record before the trial court. But the same was totally ignored with a predetermined mind without examining the allegations and the script placed on record.

“It is further submitted that the trial court ignored the fact that Gurdas Maan uploaded a video on his Facebook page, wherein he gave an explanation while apologising for his act. That video was also with the trial Court. But without going into the material and cogent evidence available before it, the cancellation report has been accepted and protest petition was ordered to be dismissed being against the very basic principle that a complaint is not an encyclopaedia and statement of witnesses need ought to have been examined minutely but the same has been ignored without any reasons merely on the basis of surmises with a predetermined mind,” Justice Moudgil observed while taking note of the contentions.