The Bombay High Court has scrapped a 12-year-old FIR against programming heads and media executives of a Marathi TV channel. The FIR was about a dialogue in the serial 'Laxmi versus Saraswati' that was claimed to insult the Scheduled Caste community. The FIR was lodged in 2013 at Wada police station in Maharashtra's Thane district. Rahul Gaikwad complained that during an episode aired on August 22, 2012, a character used the words “mahara-poranchi” while warding off the “evil eye.” The complainant said these words insulted the Mahar community, a Scheduled Caste. The accused included the programming head of ‘Star Pravah’ and Star Entertainment Media Pvt. Ltd. They argued they did not create the content or control the dialogue. They said the actor spoke these words on the spot, calling it an “impromptu” line. In a judgment on December 23, 2025, a Division Bench of Justice Manish Pitale and Manjusha Deshpande highlighted strict rules for prosecuting cases under the Atrocities Act. They said, “Since criminal prosecution for offence involves a serious matter, which can lead to imposition of fine and also incarceration, the examination as to whether the ingredients of the criminal offence are made out or not, has to be strict and specific.” The court pointed out a key flaw in the complaint: it did not say the accused were not members of the Scheduled Caste or Tribe. “Such alleged acts are to be undertaken by a person who is not a member of a scheduled caste or a scheduled tribe,” the court explained. The court also ruled that neither the Star Entertainment company nor the petitioners had a role in finalising the dialogues. They were not involved in the actor’s spontaneous words. To file a case under the Atrocities Act, the prosecution must clearly state the accused is not from a Scheduled Caste or Tribe — a detail missing in this FIR, said the court. The TV channel had also aired a disclaimer that it did not support the views shown in the serial, which helped their defense. The FIR is now officially quashed, closing a long legal battle over a single dialogue broadcast 12 years ago.