New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed painter MF Husain's plea for immunity from prosecution in any court in the country except in Delhi on charges of allegedly hurting religious sentiments through his nude paintings of Hindu goddesses.
A bench of Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan refused to grant the eminent painter blanket immunity after glancing through his controversial paintings.
The bench, however, acceded to Husain's request to transfer a criminal complaint against him pending at a Maharashtra court to the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in New Delhi.
The court has so far transferred at least six such complaints to Delhi from other courts of the country.
Senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for Husain, pleaded to the bench 'to make at least an observation' to the effect that courts outside Delhi should not take cognisance of complaints against his client.
"The bench's observation would serve as signal to magistrates against entertaining the complaints," Salve pleaded. But the bench rejected his plea.
The bench observed that it could not divest all the courts of the country from their valid jurisdictions.
As the bench glanced through Husain's paintings, reproduced in a book called Anti-Hindu written by Praful Goradia and KR Phanda, as Salve sought to impress upon the court that they were 'completely abstract paintings of various forms'.
Salve contended that his client's paintings "have deliberately been given perverse, mischievous and inflammatory interpretations in the book."
Salve stressed that the captions given to the paintings, like 'Durga in sexual union with tiger', had not been written by Husain. Asked by the court who had written the captions, Salve pleaded ignorance.
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