Bombay HC refuses to quash FIR over WhatsApp status: Dissent only after analysis

UNDERLINING THAT “in sensitive matters, any critical words or dissenting view must be expressed after proper analysis of the whole situation”, the Bombay High Court has dismissed a plea by a Kolhapur college professor who sought quashing of an FIR against him over his WhatsApp status messages last year.

In status messages last August, Javed Ahmed Hajam, a 26-year-old from Baramulla in J&K who teaches at Sanjay Ghodavat College in Kolhapur, had called August 5, the day Article 370 was abrogated in 2019, a “black day”. He had also hailed August 14, the Pakistan Independence Day, as “Happy Independence Day”. Following these messages, an FIR was registered against him at the Hatkanagale police station in Kolhapur.