A petition has been submitted to the Supreme Court contesting the Karnataka High Court's September 13, 2024, ruling that quashed an FIR filed against two individuals accused of forcibly entering a mosque in Dakshina Kannada district and raising the 'Jai Sri Ram' slogan.

"The High Court has adopted a very pedantic approach in quashing the criminal proceedings by merely embarking upon an examination as to whether the ingredients of the offences mentioned in the FIR were met or not," the plea states.

'ununderstandable how chanting "Jai Shree Ram" in a mosque outraged religious feelings.

“Section 295A deals with deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs. It is ununderstandable as to how if someone shouts ‘Jai Sriram’ it would outrage the religious feeling of any class. When the complainant himself states that Hindu – Muslims are living in harmony in the area the incident by no stretch of imagination can result in antimony,” the high court order read.

An FIR was filed after a complaint was lodged stating that unidentified individuals entered the mosque, raised the slogan "Jai Shree Ram," and made threats, claiming they would not leave the community. Following this, they reportedly fled the scene.

The complainant argues that the essence of the allegations and the FIR, on a prima facie basis, suggest that offences under Sections 153-A, 297, 298, 441 read with 442 and 448, 505, and 506 of the IPC were committed.

"The impugned order has been passed completely ignoring the dictum laid down by this Court in the several cases. The entire investigation has been stultified since the issuance of notice on November 29, 2023, when the High Court stayed the criminal proceedings in the matter," top court has been told.

"It is ununderstandable as to how if someone shouts 'Jai Sri Ram' it would outrage the religious feeling of any class completely ignoring the fact that such utterances were made by the accused persons by trespassing into the Mosque compound/premises along with threatening the Muslim community".

The special leave petition argued that the impugned order should be intervened with and set aside, as the present case does not fall under the category of the rarest of rare cases where prosecution must be halted at the very outset.

"The observation of the High Court that shouting 'Jai Sri Ram' will not outrage the religious feelings of any class and the incident by no stretch of imagination can result in acrimony, itself shows that the occurrence of the incident cannot be denied, at least at this stage," the SLP submits.

"This is a case where letting the impugned order attain finality would amount to an abuse of process of the court, and this court should exercise its discretionary power to grant special leave to appeal under Article 136 of the Constitution," it said.

The complaint claimed that on September 24, 2023, two unidentified men entered the mosque compound, raised the slogan 'Jai Shri Ram,' and threatened the Muthavalli, stating they would not leave the community.