NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday granted four weeks to the Centre and the Delhi Police for filing replies on a plea seeking action against hate speeches by BJP leaders that allegedly triggered communal violence in northeast Delhi.
A bench headed by Chief Justice D N Patel also allowed the impleadment of the Centre in the PIL filed by social activist Harsh Mander.
Representing the Centre and the Delhi Police, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench that 48 FIRs had already been lodged in connection with the violence. Mehta appealed that there be no judicial intervention till normalcy is restored, and contended that the time was not conducive to file FIR over the hate speeches.
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“The condition is not conducive at this moment. FIRs will be registered at an appropriate time. FIRs have been filed for violence, arson, destruction of property etc.”
The Solicitor General also told the court that the hate speeches would be looked into and a decision would be taken on what has to be done and added that the decision taken would be indicated in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) response. Objecting to the police’s submission, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves sought action those involved in hate speech.
“If hate speech is resulting in murder, then these people are not only responsible for hate speech, they are responsible for murder. FIRs should be filed, arrests should be made,” he said. “The videos of the BJP leaders like Anurag Thakur and Kapil Mishra have gone viral and has become the favourite phrase of a certain political party.” On this point, Mehta said, “It needs to be seen as to why only selective clips were showed to the court.”
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“People are dying everyday, interim directions should be issued,” Gonsalves said urging the Chief Justice not to give four-week time to the Centre for filing reply in the case.
The case has been adjourned to April 13. On Wednesday, the Delhi High Court heard hate speeches made by four BJP members, including Union Minister Anurag Thakur, West Delhi MP Parvesh Verma and Kapil Mishra and Abhay Verma, related to the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. While Mishra is accused of making a provocative speech at Maujpur earlier this week, the others were accused of making controversial remarks before the Delhi polls that took place on February 8.
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Pleas were moved before the High Court on Thursday seeking lodging of FIR against Congress president Sonia Gandhi, ex-president Rahul Gandhi, its general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and others for allegedly giving hate speeches