Days after the Supreme Court ordered the Centre to form a committee to look into hate speech cases in the country, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat Thursday moved the Supreme Court seeking to intervene in the pending petition alleging "blatant hate speeches" against Muslims delivered at rallies across states.
The petitioner, journalist Shaheen Abdulla, had filed a writ petition before the top court seeking for certain directions to call off the country’s growing climate of hate. This is pending for adjudication before a bench.
In another petition, Abdullah stated that calls were made for killing Muslims and boycotting them socially and economically.
Karat has sought permission from Supreme Court that she be allowed to intervene as a party in the pending petition, referring to cited alleged hate speeches made by leaders of religious outfits in public meetings.
“That recently leaders of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal etc. have incited people against Muslim community in the name of Hindu Religion at public meetings held in various places in Delhi such as Nangloi, Ghonda Chowk etc,” the plea said.
The Supreme Court has 69,766 pending petitions as per the record till July 1. This is among a total of 5.02 crore cases pending in courts across the country, according to law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal.
On October 21, 2022, the Supreme Court observed that the atmosphere in India was being “sullied by hate speeches”. The top court made the comments while hearing cases pertaining to directives against conspiracies of hate speeches, and the inaction of Delhi and Uttarakhand police chiefs against spiteful comments at religious events.
In a subsequent hearing of the issue, the top court directed all states and Union Territories to register cases on their own against those making hate speeches and warned that delay in registration would be treated as contempt of court.
What’s the relevance of Brinda Karat’s plea for intervention?
The former Rajya Sabha MP’s plea comes days after the communal clashes in Haryana’s Nuh district. Six days after the violence, a mahapanchayat was held in Gurugram on August 7, organised by the Hindu Samaj Mahapanchayat. It did not have police permission.
A Supreme Court bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti, while hearing Abdullah’s petition on August 11, had said there has to be harmony and comity between communities.
It had mooted the idea of setting up a committee by the Director General of Police (DGP) of Haryana to go into the cases registered and set the next date of hearing as August 18.
The top court had also directed journalist Shaheen Abdullah to collate all material, including videos, and submit them to the nodal officers appointed in each state in pursuance of its October 2022 judgement.
Abdullah’s application had mentioned that over 27 rallies were organised across states in the aftermath of the communal clashes in Nuh and hate speeches were made.
"In a video that surfaced on social media on August 2, 2023, a procession by the 'Samhast Hindu Samaj' can be seen walking through a neighbourhood in Hisar, Haryana in the presence of police officials issuing warnings to residents/shopkeepers that if they continue to employ/keep any Muslims after 2 days then their shops will be boycotted," it stated.
Meanwhile, Brinda Karat’s plea states that people were instigated against constitutional values and secularism in the name of Hinduism. “Such meetings are being held in different parts of the National Capital and there have been continuous calls for economic and social boycott of Muslim community. These speeches are clearly an offence under several Sections of the IPC...,” it said.
It further alleged that neither stringent action is being taken against such people by the police nor are such meetings being stopped.
