Archive · 2 Oct 2026
Karnataka High Court Limits Section 509 Body-Shaming Prosecution
The case began when a woman in Bengaluru said that three people verbally abused and body-shamed her and her friends.
She said the words caused mental trauma and distress.
Police registered a case under a law protecting women from insults to their modesty.
The case later reached the Karnataka High Court.
The Court said that body-shaming and insults about physical appearance, by themselves, did not meet all the requirements of that law.
It therefore cancelled the criminal proceedings against the two women.
A third accused in the same incident had already received similar relief.
The Court said people facing identical allegations should generally be treated alike.
The Karnataka High Court ruled that body-shaming and verbal abuse alone did not establish an offence under Section 509 of the IPC.
The case involved a 2023 complaint by a Bengaluru woman alleging fat-shaming, racist and vulgar abuse by two women and a man.
Police registered an FIR, investigated the complaint and filed a chargesheet before a Bengaluru magistrate court.
Justice S.R. Krishna Kumar found that the required ingredients of Section 509 were not disclosed by the allegations.
The Court quashed proceedings against the two women, applying parity after similar proceedings against the third accused were quashed in June 2024.
- Who
- The Karnataka High Court, Justice S.R. Krishna Kumar, two women accused in the case and the complainant.
- What
- The Court quashed criminal proceedings against two women accused of body-shaming and verbally abusing another woman under Section 509 of the IPC.
- When
- The complaint was filed in August 2023; proceedings against the third accused were quashed in June 2024; the ruling was reported on October 2, 2026.
- Where
- Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
- Why
- The Court found that the allegations did not establish the mandatory ingredients of Section 509 and applied the principle of parity.
Court's Legal Finding
Complainant's Allegations
Whether Section 509 was established
Court's Legal Finding
The High Court held that body-shaming and verbal abuse, without the mandatory ingredients of Section 509, were insufficient to sustain the case.
Complainant's Allegations
The complainant alleged that the accused used fat-shaming, body-shaming, racist and vulgar language against her and her friends, causing mental trauma and distress.
Treatment of the accused
Court's Legal Finding
The Court quashed proceedings against the two women because the allegations against them were identical to those against a third person whose proceedings had already been quashed.
Complainant's Allegations
The complaint had led to an FIR, investigation and chargesheet before the proceedings were terminated by the High Court.
- Law involved
- Section 509 of the Indian Penal Code, concerning words, sounds, gestures or acts intended to insult a woman's modesty or intrude on her privacy.
- Maximum penalty
- Up to three years' imprisonment and a fine.
- Complaint
- Filed in August 2023 by a 26-year-old woman.
- Accusations
- Fat-shaming, body-shaming, racist and vulgar language directed at the complainant and her friends.
- Accused receiving relief
- Two women aged 25 and 27.
- Third accused
- Proceedings against the third person were quashed in June 2024.
- Court's reasoning
- The allegations concerning body-shaming and physical appearance did not disclose the necessary legal ingredients of Section 509.