Section 504 of the Indian Penal Code contemplates intentionally insulting a person and thereby provoking such person insulted to breach the peace or intentionally insulting a person knowing it to be likely that the person insulted may be provoked so as to cause a breach of the public peace or to commit any other offence. Mere abuse may not come within the purview of the section. But, the words of abuse in a particular case might amount to an intentional insult provoking the person insulted to commit a breach of the public peace or to commit any other offence. If abusive language is used intentionally and is of such a nature as would in the ordinary course of events lead the person insulted to break the peace or to commit an offence under the law, the case is not taken away from the purview of the Section merely because the insulted person did not actually break the peace or commit any offence having exercised self control or having been subjected to abject terror by the offender. In judging whether particular abusive language is attracted by Section 504, Indian Penal Code, the court has to find out what, in the ordinary circumstances, would be the effect of the abusive language used and not what the complainant actually did as a result of his peculiar idiosyncrasy or cool temperament or sense of discipline. It is the ordinary general nature of the abusive language that is the test for considering whether the abusive language is an intentional insult likely to provoke the person insulted to commit a breach of the peace and not the particular conduct or temperament of the complainant. {Para 25}
26. Mere abuse, discourtesy, rudeness or insolence, may not amount to an intentional insult within the meaning of Section 504, Indian Penal Code if it does not have the necessary element of being likely to incite the person insulted to commit a breach of the peace of an offence and the other element of the Accused intending to provoke the person insulted to commit a breach of the peace or knowing that the person insulted is likely to commit a breach of the peace. Each case of abusive language shall have to be decided in the light of the facts and circumstances of that case and there cannot be a general proposition that no one commits an offence Under Section 504, Indian Penal Code if he merely uses abusive language against the complainant. In King Emperor v. Chunnibhai Dayabhai, (1902) 4 Bom LR 78, a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court pointed out that:
To constitute an offence Under Section 504, Indian Penal Code it is sufficient if the insult is of a kind calculated to cause the other party to lose his temper and say or do something violent. Public peace can be broken by angry words as well as deeds.
27. A bare perusal of Section 506 of the Indian Penal Code makes it clear that a part of it relates to criminal intimidation. Before an offence of criminal intimidation is made out, it must be established that the Accused had an intention to cause alarm to the complainant.
28. In the facts and circumstances of the case and more particularly, considering the nature of the allegations levelled in the FIR, a prima facie case to constitute the offence punishable Under Section 506 of the Indian Penal Code may probably could be said to have been disclosed but not Under Section 504 of the Indian Penal Code. The allegations with respect to the offence punishable Under Section 504 of the Indian Penal Code can also be looked at from a different perspective. In the FIR, all that the first informant has stated is that abusive language was used by the Accused persons. What exactly was uttered in the form of abuses is not stated in the FIR. One of the essential elements, as discussed above, constituting an offence Under Section 504 of the Indian Penal Code is that there should have been an act or conduct amounting to intentional insult. Where that act is the use of the abusive words, it is necessary to know what those words were in order to decide whether the use of those words amounted to intentional insult. In the absence of these words, it is not possible to decide whether the ingredient of intentional insult is present.
19. Applying the principles as explained aforesaid, we are of the view that none of the ingredients to constitute the offence punishable Under Sections 504 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code respectively are borne out.
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
Criminal Appeal No. 352/2020
Decided On: 16.01.2025
Om Prakash Ambadkar Vs. The State of Maharashtra and Ors.
Hon'ble Judges/Coram:
J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan, JJ.
Citation: MANU/SC/0134/2025, 2025 INSC 139.
Read full Judgment here: Click here.
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