Pro-Palestine slogan: Bareilly court rejects application seeking lodging of case against Owaisi
A UP court dismissed a plea to file a case against Owaisi for saying "Jai Palestine" during his Lok Sabha oath, citing legal provisions and India's recognition of Palestine.
The MP/MLA court in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly district has rejected an application seeking lodging of a case against All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi for taking oath in the 18th session of Lok Sabha in which he ended with the words “Jai Palestine”.
Owaisi had ended the oath taking with the words, “Jai Bhim, Jai Meem, Jai Telangana, Jai Palestine”. Additional district judge Devashish, who is the special judge MP/MLA court, rejected the application of local lawyer Virendra Pal Gupta on August 14.
Passing the order, the court listed out instances mentioned in section 2 of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971. This section has listed out actions that cause disrespect to the Constitution or the National Flag. These actions include burning, mutilating, defacing, defiling, disfiguring, destroying, or trampling upon the National Flag or the Constitution.
The said Act also includes showing disrespect or bringing into contempt the National Flag or Constitution, whether through spoken or written words or through acts. The court also pointed out that the “Jai Palestine” words were also deleted from recordings of the Parliament’s proceedings.
While rejecting the application, the court also pointed out that the Indian government had recognised Palestine in 1988. India was one of the first countries to recognise the Palestinian State following its declaration.
The year 1998 was notable for the Wye River Memorandum, which India welcomed as an important step in the Middle East peace process and for the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people observed on November 29.
The court pointed out that immunity from court proceedings to parliamentarians and legislators under articles 105 and 194 of the Constitution does not extend in cases of bribery. These articles deal with parliamentary privileges. Article 105 outlines the privileges of the MPs and article 194 defines the privileges of MLAs.
