There are five offences against religion as follows:
(1) Destroying, damaging or defiling any place of worship or sacred object with intent to insult the religion of any class of persons or with knowledge that such class is likely to feel insulted—Simple or rigorous imprisonment upto two years or fine or both (Section 295).
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(2) Deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class of citizens of India or attempt to insult their religion or religious beliefs—Simple or rigorous imprisonment upto two years or fine or both (Section 295-A).
It has been held that the intention prescribed by this section is to be gathered primarily from the language, contents and import of the offending publication. It is well settled that to come within the ambit of Section 295-A, the intent must be both malicious and deliberate.
But Section 295-A has no application in respect of a sacred book which is protected under Section 295, I.P.C. Thus, it has been held that the Quran, like the Bible and the Granth Saheb, is a sacred book and ‘an object held sacred by a class of persons’ within the meaning of Section 295 and, therefore, against such book no action can be taken under Section 295-A. Consequently banning or forfeiture of Quran cannot be ordered under Section 95 Cr. P.C. Further, as pointed out by the Supreme Court in R.L. Modi v. State of U.P.
Section 295-A does not penalise any and every act of insult to or attempt to insult the religion or the religious beliefs of a class of citizens, which are not perpetrated with the deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of that class.
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Insults to religion offered unwittingly or carelessly or without any deliberate or malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of that class do not come within the scope of the section. It only postulates the aggravated form of insult to religion when it is perpetrated with the deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of that class.
Looking into the aim and object of Quran it cannot be said that it offers any insult to any other religion. It does not reflect any deliberate or malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of non-Muslims. Isolated passages picked out from here and there and read out of the context cannot change the position.
(3) Voluntarily disturbing a religious assembly lawfully engaged in worship or ceremonies—Simple or rigorous imprisonment upto one year or fine or both (Section 296).
(4) Trespassing in a place of worship or burial place, or offering any indignity to corpse, or disturbing persons performing funeral ceremonies, with intent to wound the feelings or to insult the religion of any person or with the knowledge that the feelings of such person are likely to be wounded—Simple or rigorous imprisonment upto one year or fine or both (Section 297).
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(5) Uttering any word or sound in the hearing of a person or making any gesture, or placing any object in the sight of any person with deliberate intent to wound his religious feelings—Simple or rigorous imprisonment upto one year or fine (Section 298).