The Allahabad High Court has observed that employees cannot be forced to wear Santa Claus caps at the workplace if it goes against their faith and beliefs.

The bench headed by Justice Saurabh Srivastava made the observation while hearing a plea in the case.

 The case involved allegations that employees of V Bazar were forced by their superiors to wear red Santa Claus caps in 2022.

The Court said the documents placed on record showed that the employees had been compelled to wear the caps. It observed that such instructions could hurt the sentiments of people belonging to different faiths and beliefs.

The Court also warned that such actions could disturb a peaceful and harmonious working environment.

The observation came while the Court was hearing a plea by one of the accused seeking to quash criminal proceedings and summons issued by the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Agra.

The accused was facing proceedings under Sections 298 and 504 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Section 298 deals with words or acts intended to hurt the religious feelings of a person, while Section 504 relates to intentional insult with an intention to provoke a breach of peace.

The petitioner argued that the offences were non-cognizable and that the magistrate could not have treated the case as a police case.

The High Court agreed with the submission and referred to Section 2(d) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). It held that a chargesheet filed by the investigating officer in a case involving non-cognizable offences has to be treated as a complaint.

The Court therefore held that the magistrate had committed a legal error by taking cognisance of the matter as a State case and quashed the summoning order.

However, the Court clarified that the trial court would be free to treat the matter as a complaint case if required under law.

The Court also warned the applicant and his superiors against issuing similar instructions that could disturb peace and harmony among employees.

Advocates Anand Kumar Dwivedi and Raj Kumar Mishra appeared for the petitioner.