The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that abandoning hate speech is a must to maintain communal harmony in the nation. Seeking details of action taken in hate speech cases, the court said that the mere registration of FIRs is not enough.
The Supreme Court was hearing a case on inaction by states in acting against instances of hate speech made against Muslims and Christians. A two-judge bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna said: "Abjuring hate speech is a fundamental requisite for the maintenance of communal harmony."
Appearing for the petitioners, Advocate Nizam Pasha said: "In one fresh petition, notice has not been issued. There is some urgency in that, as I have shown in the news reports annexed. Over 50 rallies, with at least one hate speech every two days took place in Maharashtra."
The apex court sought to know from Solicitor General Tushar Mehta details of the action taken in connection with hate speech cases. The court said that just registering cases will not solve the problem, reported news agency PTI. Mehta had informed the SC bench that 18 FIRs had been lodged. Overruling the objections of Mehta and Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, the SC posted the matter for hearing on Wednesday.
The court on October 21 last year had said that the ideals of the Constitution to strive for a secular nation must be upheld. It ordered the governments of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh to "come down hard on cases of hate speech" and "register criminal cases against culprits without waiting for a complaint to be filed".
The SC had also warned that any inordinate delay in taking action by the administration would become a "very serious issue" and could result in "contempt of court" proceedings. However, Justice BV Nagarathna was quoted as saying by Bar & Bench as saying: "If we entertain this, then this court will be flooded with contempts. We will have to look into it. We are not on merits but the entailing procedure."
(With PTI inputs.)