RSS Doesn’t Use Word Hindu As Religion, Remarks Against It Don't Hurt Religious Sentiments: Karnataka Court While Rejecting Complaint Against CM Siddaramaiah
The Court was of the view that no such intention as to harming the reputation or dignity of RSS organization could be drawn from the statement of CM.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah
A Karnataka Court has rejected the Complaint filed against Karnataka Chief Minister (CM) Siddaramaiah, who was alleged to have hurt religious sentiments by his remarks against Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
The Bengaluru Court was hearing a Complaint filed by Advocate Kiran N. under Section 223 of the Bharatiya Nagarika Suraksha Sanhitha, 2023 (BNSS) for the offences punishable under Sections 299, 352, and 356(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS).
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) K.N. Shivakumar observed, “… the content of alleged speech made by the accused would not touch upon any religion or religious belief at all as rightly argued by the defence counsel. Further, said RSS organization is admittedly not a religious organization and said organization doesn’t uses the word Hindu as religion, as revealed from the extract from the Official website of said RSS, produced by the complainant himself. Hence, the alleged remarks made against said RSS would not in any manner refer to any religion or any religious belief of any such religion.”
The Court said that, to attract offence under Section 299 of BNS, there must be a deliberate and malicious act on the part of the accused & such act should be with the intention of insulting the religion or the religious belief of any class of citizens of India.
Factual Background
The Complainant was an Advocate by profession and he used to attend the drill and exercise activities in Sairanga playground during his early schooling days, which was being carried by RSS. He was an alumnus of Rastrothana Parishath during early 90’s and benefited by their service. It was alleged in the Complaint that on March 17, 2025, at Vidhana Soudha, Bengaluru, while admiring Governance in Curbing the Crime rate in the State, the Karnataka CM (accused) had accused the RSS and Bajrang Dal organizations as the perpetrators of crime in the State.
His statement was aired on social media & news media, which was viewed by the Complainant on a YouTube Channel. He alleged that such statement by the accused about the RSS & Bajrang Dal organizations not only hurt his sentiments, but also portrayed divine RSS as crime organization and its volunteers as criminals. Thus, he claimed that the said statement made by the accused was not only derogatory, libelous, maligning, but also assassinating the dignity of RSS organization and also hurting the religious and emotional sentiments of the Complainant.
Reasoning
The Court in view of the facts and circumstances of the case, noted, “It is well settled position of law that, only an aggrieved person is entitled to initiate prosecution for the offence of defamation punishable U/Sec.356(2) of BNS, 2023. Further, there is no specific allegation as to whether the accused made any individual defamatory statement against the complainant.”
The Court further said that the intention of the accused to cause harm to the Complainant is the most essential element of an offence of defamation and in understanding or judging such an intention of the accused, it is material to look into the circumstances under which and the object with which such defamatory imputations or remarks or statements were made or published.
“Therefore, in the light of the above ratio, on careful consideration of the alleged statements made by the accused and the allegations made in the complaint and also the publications in News agencies about alleged statement made by the accused, as already discussed herein above, the accused in the course of his reply to the motion of thanks to the Hon’ble Governor and in the course of brushing aside the opposition’s allegations with regard to maintenance of law & order in his governance and in the context of the discussion on the subjects of law enforcement & public order, made said statement”, it added.
The Court was of the view that no such intention as to harming the reputation or dignity of RSS organization could be drawn from such statement, which had come in the circumstances.
“In view of all the above discussed reasons, it can be concluded that no such intention to harm the reputation of the complainant could be gathered or judged from the alleged speech/ statement / imputations, rather an intention to brush aside the oppositions allegations about the maintenance of law & order in the Governance and also in the context of discussion on the subjects of law enforcement & public order as an intrinsic part of legislative debate in the proceedings of the legislature”, it also observed.
The Court, therefore, concluded that the allegations of the Complaint as well as the documents annexed to it would not prima-facie satisfy the ingredients of the alleged offences and as such do not make out any case for taking cognizance of said offences as against the accused.
Accordingly, the Court rejected the Complaint against the accused.
Cause Title- Kiran N. v. Siddaramaiah (Case Number: PCR.No. 3876/2025)
