Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, April 26: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Uttarakhand Government to take measures to prevent hate speeches in Dharam Sansad which has been planned at Roorkee on Wednesday.
The apex court lashed out at the Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh governments observing that they had failed to take steps to prevent Dharam Sansads from being organised despite repeated “unacceptable speeches” at such events.
“You’re supposed to prevent unfortunate incidents and unacceptable speeches. If the speaker is the same, you can’t claim that you didn’t know there could be a problem,” the SC said. The court also forewarned that it would hold the chief secretary, the director general and the inspector general of the state police responsible if the hate speeches were allowed to be delivered at the Roorkee Dharam Sansad.
A bench comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar, Abhay Sreeniwas Oka and CT Ravikumar was hearing an application filed by journalist Qurban Ali and Senior Advocate Anjana Prakash, a former judge of the Patna High Court, seeking criminal action against alleged hate speeches made at similar Dharam Sansads in the past.
The Supreme Court pulled up the Uttarakhand lawyer after he said: “We don’t know what the speaker is going to say. If someone says we want to hold an event we can’t deny permission.”
The Supreme Court, while hearing a case against hate speeches being delivered at Dharam Sansads, sought to know what steps the state governments had taken to prevent such incidents. “Announcement of these events are made earlier. What steps did you take to prevent such a thing from happening,” the court asked.
Appearing for the petitioners, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said: “Now a Sansad has been announced in Roorkee.” The SC told the Uttarakhand lawyer: “He is informing you of another event that is to happen. What steps have you taken to prevent it?” The lawyer said the government had registered FIRs and were trying to get the organisers to call off the event.
The SC also asked for details of who was issuing instructions in the matter. Justice Khanwilkar said: “Despite the 2019 judgment of the SC giving guidelines for preventive measures, these things are happening.”
The Uttarakhand lawyer said: “There is a stand being taken to paint one particular community. We are trying to calm things down. The petition is trying to protect one community, which is also responsible.”
To this, the SC slammed the government, saying that this was not the way to address such issues. “We will hold the Chief Secretary, IG, and DG responsible for any incident. If you don’t know what preventive measures are to be taken, we shall ask the chief secretary to be present here,” the apex court said.