Following, abusing a woman not offence of outraging modesty: Bombay High Court

NAGPUR: Following, abusing and pushing a woman might be "annoying" acts, but did not constitute the offence of outraging the modesty under IPC Section 354, the Nagpur bench of Bombay HC ruled, and granted relief to a man convicted by the judicial magistrate first class court at Wardha. Justice Anil Pansare acquitted the appellant, a 36-year-old labourer, saying the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
A college student had filed a police complaint against the man alleging that he had followed her a couple of times and abused her.Once, when she was going to a market, he followed her on the bicycle and pushed/shoved her, she said in her complaint. The magistrate's court convicted the man on May 9, 2016, and sentenced him to two years' rigorous imprisonment. The sessions court upheld the verdict on July 10, 2023.
Hearing the man's appeal, the HC said: "It is not the case that the petitioner has touched her inappropriately or given a push to a specific part of her body which made her position embarrassing... Merely because the applicant on bicycle pushed her, to my mind cannot be said to be an act which is capable of shocking the sense of her decency."