Bombay High Court: The present petition was filed for quashing the FIR registered at Malabar Hill Police Station on 13-12-2022 under Section 354-D1 of the Penal Code, 1860 and Section 67 of the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 and the consequent proceedings. The Division Bench of Sarang V. Kotwal and S.M. Modak, JJ., quashed the proceedings against the petitioner as Respondent 1 after coming to know that the petitioner unintentionally sent her an obscene message on WhatsApp while he was suffering from a mental illness, decided to withdraw her allegations.
Respondent 1-informant and the petitioner were teaching in a reputed college in South Mumbai and after the informant got another job, she left her teaching employment with the college and subsequently, even the petitioner retired. On 12-12-2022, Respondent 1 was shocked to receive an obscene and objectionable message on her WhatsApp from the petitioner, therefore, she lodged a complaint.
Petitioner submitted that he was suffering from mental imbalance, and he submitted a medical report given by a psychologist in relation to that. The petitioner, because of mental impairment of his faculties, was unable to judge the right social behaviour and, in that state, unintentionally sent the offending Whats-App message to Respondent 1.
Respondent 1, after coming to know about the petitioner’s mental illness, decided to withdraw her allegations. Thus, she filed “Affidavit of Consent” for quashing of the proceedings, and she stated in her Affidavit that at the time of filing of the FIR, she did not know that the petitioner was suffering from mental disease and ailment (FTLD).
The Court noted that Respondent 1 accepted the fact that the message was sent unintentionally when the petitioner was not in a fit state of mind. The Court stated that since Respondent 1 gave her consent to quash the proceedings, no purpose would be served in continuing the prosecution and it would be in the interest of justice to quash the same.
The Court thus quashed and set aside the proceedings registered with Malabar Hill Police Station and the consequent proceedings pending on the file of the Judicial Magistrate First Class, 40th Court, Girgaum, Mumbai.
[X v. Y, Writ Petition No. 1419 of 2025, 19-3-2025]
Advocates who appeared in this case:
For the Petitioner: Sanjay Bhatia, Advocate for Petitioner.
For the Respondents: Neha Kamble, Advocate for Respondent 1; B.V. Holambe Patil, APP for Respondent 2-State.
Buy Penal Code, 1860 HERE
1. Corresponding Section 78 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023
