Supreme Court issues notice to Uttarakhand govt over hate speech at Haridwar Dharm Sansad

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, January 12

The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Uttarakhand Government on a PIL seeking action against those responsible for delivering hate speeches during the ‘Dharam Sansad’ held at Haridwar last month.

Asking the Uttarakhand Government to respond to the PIL filed by journalist Qurban Ali and senior advocate Anjana Prakash, a Bench led by CJI NV Ramana posted the matter for further hearing after 10 days.

On behalf of the petitioners, senior advocate Kapil Sibal urged the top court to stay the next Dharm Sansad scheduled to be held at Aligarh later this month and take up the matter on Monday for this purpose but the Bench didn’t pass any such orders.

“We allow the petitioners to bring the case before the notice of the authorities and how it is against certain penal provisions,” the CJI told Sibal.

On behalf of an intervenor, senior advocate Indira Jaising said the guidelines laid down by the top court were not being followed.

During the hearing, the Bench said similar issues were pending before another Bench led by Justice AM Khanwilkar and that this petition should be sent to that Bench.

However, it agreed to issue notice to the Uttarakhand Government after Sibal insisted that his petition was specifically on the issue of hate speech at Haridwar Dharm Sansad.

“We are living in difficult times where the slogan of the country has changed from ‘Satyamev Jayate’ to ‘Sashastramev Jayate’,” Sibal had told the Bench on Monday.

“The said 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”, the petitioners have submitted.

“That the contents of the speech feed into an already prevailing discourse which seeks to reimagine the Indian republic as exclusivist, and that which has no space for other cultures, traditions and practices. Such a discourse is in itself violative of constitutional guarantees provided to minority cultures and religions in India,” they submitted.

They sought the court’s urgent intervention in respect of the hate speeches delivered between the 17th and 19th of December, 2021 in two events organized in Haridwar by one Yati Narsinghanand, and in Delhi by ‘Hindu Yuva Vahini’ with the apparent objective of declaring a war against a significant section of the Indian citizenry.

Alleging that the speakers made open calls for genocide of Muslims, the petitioners said the speeches were not mere hate speeches but an open call for murder of an entire community.