The Punjab & Haryana High Court recently allowed pre-arrest bail to a man booked under Section 3 of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, for a dance video on TiKTok. (Mandeep v. State of Haryana).The person, Mandeep, uploaded a video of himself dancing to a song composed by a deceased poet Pandit Jagdish Chander Vats..Granting anticipatory bail, the Bench of Justice Fateh Deep Singh said:."Petitioner is neither the author/composer nor prepared the music of the song which was composed more than 40/50 years ago by the person who has since died. To the specific query of the Court how mere dancing on the tune of a song and preparing a video hurts the sentiments of the particular caste is a question which is debatable and can only be adjudicated at the time of trial.".The complainant averred that the video hurt sentiments of persons belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities..The Counsel for the petitioner, countering the charges made in the complaint. asserted that his client merely danced on the tune of the song and was neither the author nor the composer of the song. He denied allegations that the petitioner's actions had hurt the feelings of a particular caste. There were no recoveries to be made from the petitioner, the lawyer added..The State counsel did not rebut any of these submissions but insisted that anticipatory bail could not be granted when an offence under the SC/ST Atrocities Act was alleged..Finding the question of whether the offence was attracted "debatable" and could be determined only at Trial, the Court remarked that it would be a travesty of justice if the petitioner sent behind bars..Mandeep was, therefore, granted anticipatory bail..Advocate Randeep S. Dhull represented the petitioner and DAG Balvinder Virk appeared for the State of Haryana..Read the Order here:
The Punjab & Haryana High Court recently allowed pre-arrest bail to a man booked under Section 3 of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, for a dance video on TiKTok. (Mandeep v. State of Haryana).The person, Mandeep, uploaded a video of himself dancing to a song composed by a deceased poet Pandit Jagdish Chander Vats..Granting anticipatory bail, the Bench of Justice Fateh Deep Singh said:."Petitioner is neither the author/composer nor prepared the music of the song which was composed more than 40/50 years ago by the person who has since died. To the specific query of the Court how mere dancing on the tune of a song and preparing a video hurts the sentiments of the particular caste is a question which is debatable and can only be adjudicated at the time of trial.".The complainant averred that the video hurt sentiments of persons belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities..The Counsel for the petitioner, countering the charges made in the complaint. asserted that his client merely danced on the tune of the song and was neither the author nor the composer of the song. He denied allegations that the petitioner's actions had hurt the feelings of a particular caste. There were no recoveries to be made from the petitioner, the lawyer added..The State counsel did not rebut any of these submissions but insisted that anticipatory bail could not be granted when an offence under the SC/ST Atrocities Act was alleged..Finding the question of whether the offence was attracted "debatable" and could be determined only at Trial, the Court remarked that it would be a travesty of justice if the petitioner sent behind bars..Mandeep was, therefore, granted anticipatory bail..Advocate Randeep S. Dhull represented the petitioner and DAG Balvinder Virk appeared for the State of Haryana..Read the Order here: