The Bombay High Court on Tuesay reserved its order on a plea moved by Murzban Shroff� the author of Breathless in Bombay� who has been accused of casting a slur on a community by referreing to them as �ghati� in his novel.

Shroff had moved the court seeking to quash a criminal complaint filed against him by activist Vijay Mudras.

Justice V M Kanade on Monday had stated that people from the Konkan region use the word to refer to people who stay in the Pune region and in that sense it was an abuse.

The court had earlier observed that the tolerance level of people had gone down.The judge also indicated that he would be reading the book.

Shroff�s lawyer Mihir Desai contended that the book was a work of fiction, and an alcoholic character in one story used the term �ghati� and was reprimanded by the protagonist for it.
Rajiv Patil, advocate appearing for Mudras, stated that these freedoms were subject to reasonable restrictions.

�In a democratic society, you have freedom of speech,� Justice Kanade said.

Mihir Desai had earlier said necessary sanction from the government was not taken before taking cognizance of the case. Desai also had stated that the government had not even banned the book.