'Hate speeches sullying country's atmosphere’: SC agrees with petitioner, seeks specific instances

The Supreme Court on Monday said that a petitioner may be right in claiming that hate speeches need to be stopped, as they are sullying the atmosphere in the country.

A bench of Chief Justice U U Lalit and Justice S Ravindra Bhat was hearing a plea against rising hate speeches against the minority communities in the country.

The petitioner Harpreet Mansukhani, appearing in person, alleged that no action was being taken by government authorities against such speeches.

The bench remarked that the petitioner may be right that the atmosphere is getting sullied by these hate speeches and perhaps the petitioner has every justifiable ground to say that this needs to be curbed.

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The petitioner argued that hate speeches were being made to make India a Hindu Rashtra before 2024 general elections. She submitted that hate speech has been turned into a profitable business and a party-funded movie in The Kashmir Files, which was made tax-free.

The petitioner pointed out that another bench of the apex court had sought a status report regarding implementation of the 2018 Tehseen Poonawalla judgment. The top court asked the petitioner to file specific instances of hate speeches, instead of giving a vague overview on the issue.

The bench orally observed that it doesn’t even know what are the details of those particular crimes, what is the status, who are the persons involved, whether any case was registered or not.

The petitioner submitted that there needs to be some directions to prevent such conspiracies resulting in such hate speeches. She added that whenever hate speech is made it is like an arrow which never returns.

The bench pointed out that for courts to take cognisance, a factual background is required.

After hearing arguments, the court fixed the matter for further consideration in November.