A view of the Supreme Court of India. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
The Supreme Court of India on Thursday (December 19, 2024) refused to entertain a plea filed by senior bureaucrats and activists seeking contempt action against the Ghaziabad district administration and the Uttar Pradesh State Police for allowing a dharam sansad of which advertisements sport communal remarks.
However, a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna directed the authorities to keep track of the happenings in the sansad and record the event.
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The petitioners led by activist Aruna Roy, represented by advocates Prashant Bhushan and Cheryl d’Souza, alleged that the administration gave permission to the Yati Narasinghanand Foundation to hold the dharam sansad between December 17 and December 21 at Ghaziabad despite the programme advertisements showing communal statements against the followers of Islam, inciting violence against Muslims.
They argued that the alleged lapse on the part of the district administration and the State Police amounted to a “willful and deliberate contempt of the orders of the Supreme Court wherein it had directed all competent and appropriate authorities to take suo motu action against individuals or groups who indulge in communal activities and hate speeches.”
In its Tehseen Poonawala judgment of 2018, the apex court had condemned hate crimes and held that it was the “sacrosanct duty” of the State to protect the lives of its citizens. The Tehseen Poonawala judgment had seen the court issue a slew of guidelines for States and their police forces to prevent, control and deter hate speech, mob violence and lynchings.
In October 2022, the apex court had said it was “tragic what we have reduced religion to” in the 21st century and a “climate of hate prevails in the country” while directing police and authorities to suo motu register cases against hate speech offenders without waiting for someone to file formal complaints.
The Chief Justice asked the petitioners to approach the authorities concerned. “All matters cannot come to the apex court. If I entertain one, I have to entertain all,” the CJI said. Mr. Bhushan insisted that one case should be made an example. “If it happens in one case, it will stop,” he argued.
Similar pending petitions, filed by petitioners including former High Court judge Anjana Prakash and journalist Qurban Ali, had highlighted in the apex court that “hate speeches consisted of open calls for genocide of Muslims in order to achieve ethnic cleansing. The speeches are not mere hate speeches but amount to an open call for murder of an entire community. The speeches thus pose a grave threat not just to the unity and integrity of our country but also endanger the lives of millions of Muslim citizens.”
These petitions had brought to the court’s attention hate speeches and communal statements made during dharam sansads held in places such as Haridwar and Delhi in December 2022.
“We are living in different times where slogans in the country have changed from Satyamev Jayate to Shashtramev Jayate,” senior advocate Kapil Sibal had submitted in an earlier hearing.
Published – December 19, 2024 04:01 pm IST
