‘The Very Act Of Throwing a Chit On a Woman’s Person Which Professes Love For Her Amounts To Outraging Modesty’: Bombay High Court

The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court observed that there exists no straitjacket formula to ascertain whether modesty of a woman is outraged. The High Court also went on to note that the very act of throwing a chit on a woman’s person which professes love for her and which contains poetic verses, albeit extremely, purely written is sufficient to outrage the modesty of a woman. These observations were made while hearing a criminal revision application filed against a judgment passed in 2018 by the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Court 8, Akola whereby the applicant was convicted for offence punishable under Section 354, Section 509 and Section 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for two years and fine of Rs. 10,000/-; rigorous imprisonment for two years and fine of Rs. 30,000/- and rigorous imprisonment for one year respectively.