SC asks HC to decide on FIR against Minister Anurag Thakur in Delhi riots case

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Delhi High Court to decide expeditiously, preferably within three months, a plea for registration of FIR against Union minister Anurag Thakur, BJP MP Parvesh Verma and BJP leader Kapil Mishra, for allegedly making hateful comments, triggering 2020 Delhi riots.

A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Justice B R Gavai, however, declined to entertain a writ petition filed by Mohd Nazim and others, who claimed to be victims of Delhi riots.

The petitioners, led by senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, contended that they were losing hope as the Delhi High Court was delaying the proceedings, despite the top court's order to decide the matter in a time-bound manner.

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They said that theirs was a "simple and straightforward" case for registration of FIRs based on video evidence of speeches already in the public domain, and the delay in deciding the cases was wholly unjustifiable.

The counsel said it was in March 2020, that the Supreme Court had asked the High Court to decide the matter as soon as possible. He pleaded, in the circumstances, the top court should take up the matter and decide.

The bench, however, said, "We cannot do anything once the matter is sent back to HC. We can only request the High Court to hear this matter early and dispose of them."

The top court asked the High Court to decide the matter expeditiously, preferably within a period of three months.

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