New Delhi: The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a PIL seeking a direction to ensure investigation and action against those who made hate speeches during two separate events held recently at ‘Dharam Sansad’ in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, and in the national capital. A Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justices Surya kant and Hima Kohli took note of the submissions of senior advocate Kapil Sibal that no action has been taken against those who made the hate speeches despite registration of FIR by the Uttarakhand police.
“I have moved this PIL in respect of what happened in Dharam Sansad in Haridwar December 17 and 19 (last year). We are living in difficult times where slogan in country has changed from ‘Satyamev Jayate’ to ‘Shastramev Jayate’,” Sibal said in his plea. “All right, we will take up the matter,” the CJI said, asking whether some inquiries were on.
The FIR has been filed but no arrests have been made, the senior lawyer said. Sibal added that no action would be possible without the intervention of this court.
The petition, filed by journalist Qurban Ali and former Patna High Court Judge and senior advocate Anjana Prakash, have sought a direction for ‘an independent, credible and impartial investigation’ by an SIT into the incidents of hate speeches against the Muslim community.
The plea, which specifically referred to the ‘hate’ speeches delivered between ‘the 17th & 19th of December 2021 at Haridwar and Delhi’, has also sought compliance of apex court’s guidelines to deal with such speeches.
One event was organised in Haridwar by one Yati Narsinghanand and the other in Delhi by ‘Hindu Yuva Vahini’ allegedly ‘calling for genocide of members’ of a community.
The Uttarakhand police have filed the FIR December 23, 2021 under various provisions of the IPC against some persons including Wasim Rizvi, Sant Dharamdas Maharaj, Sadhvi Annapoorna alias Pooja Shakun Pandey, Yati Narsinghanand and Sagar Sindhu Maharaj. A similar complaint has been filed with Delhi Police for the second event organised in the national capital.
The plea said no effective steps have been taken by Uttarakhand and Delhi police. Till date no FIR has been lodged by the Delhi Police despite calls for ethnic cleansing at the event organised here, it said.