A Delhi court on Thursday refused to order a first information report against an art gallery in the national capital for displaying allegedly offensive paintings by late artist MF Husain, The Hindu reported.

The court said that the complainant, advocate Amita Sachdeva, already had the evidence required to prove her allegations.

Judicial Magistrate Sahil Monga of Patiala House Court directed the complainant to proceed with the matter as a complaint case. This involves filing a formal complaint that may lead to judicial scrutiny and a potential inquiry.

“In the present case, all the facts and circumstances of the case are within the knowledge of the complainant,” the court said. “CCTV footage of Delhi Art Gallery, and the paintings in question have already been seized. Hence, no further investigation and collection of evidence are required on the part of the investigating agency at this stage.”

The court said that if registration of an FIR becomes necessary later, Section 225 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita could be applied, which provides a procedure for the magistrate regarding the postponement of the issuing process against an accused upon receiving a complaint.

The section specifies conditions under which the magistrate can postpone the process and direct the investigation.

In a statement on Thursday, DAG, formerly called the Delhi Art Gallery, said that the judicial magistrate having dismissed the complainant’s application means that “her personal grievance need not merit the involvement of any state investigation agency”.

“DAG strongly opposes the complainant’s unfounded allegations and shall call out her attempt to launch a malicious prosecution against DAG, when called upon by the court to do so,” the gallery said. “DAG also intends to pursue its own legal remedies against the complainant for the false and mala fide accusations made by her.”

On Monday, the court ordered the seizure of two paintings by Husain that were displayed at DAG in New Delhi’s Connaught Place area following Sachdeva’s complaint.

The paintings featured Hindu deities Hanuman and Ganesha.

Sachdeva said that she had clicked photos of the allegedly offensive paintings at DAG on December 4. She filed a police complaint on December 9 after researching previous FIRs filed against Husain.

However, she found that the paintings had been removed when she visited the gallery again on December 10. It was falsely claimed that the paintings were never displayed, Sachdeva alleged on social media on December 13.

Sachdeva said at the time that she had filed applications demanding that a case be filed and security camera footage for the period from December 4 to December 10 be preserved.

In his previous order on Monday, Monga cited the police’s action taken report as saying that the investigating officer had seized the security camera footage and the network video recorder of the art gallery. “It is further stated in the ATR [action taken report] that a list of paintings was provided by Delhi Art Gallery in which the paintings in question are mentioned at Serial No. 6 and 10,” he said.

The inquiry report said that the art exhibition had been held in a private space and the paintings were only to display the original work of Husain, Monga added.

Husain, a recipient of India’s second-highest civilian award Padma Vibhushan, died in 2011.