States » SouthPosted at: Oct 12 2026 7:33PM


Karnataka HC quashes FIR against Sanjay Patil in ‘woman’s modesty’ case

Bengaluru, Oct 12 (UNI) The Karnataka High Court has quashed criminal proceedings against former BJP MLA Sanjay Patil over an alleged objectionable remark about Congress leader Laxmi Hebbalkar during the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign, ruling that the complaint failed to satisfy the legal requirements for prosecuting him for insulting a woman's modesty.
The ruling centres on a crucial legal question: whether a person who claims to have heard an allegedly derogatory remark about another woman can maintain a criminal complaint under Section 509 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which penalises words, gestures or acts intended to insult a woman's modesty.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna held that the complainant, a Congress worker who alleged that Patil had made the remark about Hebbalkar, was not herself the target of the alleged insult. The court found that the complaint did not establish the essential ingredients required to attract the offence.
The case arose from a complaint filed on April 16, 2024, following an election campaign rally in the Belagavi Lok Sabha constituency. The complainant alleged that Patil had made a remark suggesting that Hebbalkar would need sleeping pills or an extra peg of alcohol to sleep that night.
She considered the statement derogatory towards Hebbalkar, who was then the state's Women and Child Welfare Minister.
Patil subsequently approached the High Court, seeking to quash the criminal proceedings initiated against him.
The High Court relied on a Supreme Court ruling in Madhushree Datta vs State (2025) while examining the legal requirements for invoking Section 509 IPC. It concluded that the complaint, as presented, did not establish the necessary ingredients of the alleged offence.
The court held that allowing criminal proceedings to continue when the basic ingredients of the offence were not made out would result in a miscarriage of justice.
The order, passed in Criminal Petition No. 3888 of 2025, sets aside the criminal proceedings against Patil. The ruling addresses the legal sustainability of the specific charge and does not amount to a judicial endorsement of the alleged remark.
UNI BDN
Tags: #Karnataka HC quashes FIR against Sanjay Patil in ‘woman’s modesty’ case
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