Daijiworld Media Network – Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Jul 25: The Karnataka high court has observed that calling a female friend 'pretty' is part of the common informal language used by Generation Z and does not constitute a criminal offence. The court made this observation while quashing an FIR against a 20-year-old youth.

According to the details of the case, the youth, a college student in Bengaluru, had sent a message saying ‘pretty’ in response to his female classmate's photo on Instagram. The girl had replied to his message with a 'thanks'.

However, the girl's father, a senior IPS officer of the Karnataka cadre, took objection to the message and filed a complaint against the youth at the Ashok Nagar police station. The youth was booked for stalking and violation of privacy under Section 66E of the Information Technology (IT) Act. The police had also seized the boy's mobile phone and laptop during the investigation.

Hearing the case, a bench headed by justice M Nagaprasanna quashed the FIR, noting that such informal communication is common among today's younger generation (Gen Z). The court clarified that calling a classmate 'pretty' in a private chat does not fall under the ambit of outraging a woman's modesty.

The court emphasised that it was a personal conversation between two individuals and not a public comment. Terming the registration of the case as a clear misuse of the law, the court observed that invoking criminal law for such trivial matters would ruin the future of young individuals.

While dropping the investigation against the youth, the court ordered the police to immediately return his seized mobile phone and laptop.