SC Asks DMs, SPs Of Raipur, Yavatmal To Ensure No Hate Speech Is Made In BJP MLA T Raja Singh's Rallies

Supreme Court asks district magistrate and superintendent of police in two districts of Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh to ensure that no hate speeches are made during rallies of a BJP MLA T Raja Singh

 The bench refused the petition to stay the rallies, saying there are already guidelines issued on the issue by this court to check such incidents.  ( Image Source :abp news )

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the district magistrate and superintendent of police in two districts of Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh to ensure that no hate speeches are made during rallies of a Hindu outfit and BJP legislator T Raja Singh.

The rallies of the BJP leader are scheduled to be held in the next one week in Maharashtra's Yavatmal and Chhattisgarh's Raipur districts.

The bench was hearing an application moved in the pending petition of Shaheen Abdulla in which it was alleged that several instances of hate speeches have been reported.

According to the PTI report, the application said that a rally of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti is scheduled on January 18 in Yavatmal district, and there are apprehension of hate speeches. The application further said that there are apprehensions that instances of hate speech might occur in Raipur rallies of Singh are scheduled from January 19-25.

 The bench refused the petition to stay the rallies, saying there are already guidelines issued on the issue by this court to check such incidents. 

According to a PTI report, a bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta refused to stay the scheduled rallies, saying the parties against whom the allegations of hate speeches are made are not present before the court. However, the top court directed the district magistrates and SPs of both the districts to ensure CCTV cameras are installed at the venue of rallies with recording facilities, so that perpetrators of hate speeches can be identified, if anything happens.

In November 2023, the Supreme Court had said that action must be taken against any and all kinds of hate speech and also it agreed to hear in February a batch of petitions seeking to put in place a mechanism to curb hate speeches.

In 2018, the top court in the Tehseen Poonawala case had laid out elaborate directions to states and Union Territories directing them to appoint a nodal officer responsible for preventing hate crimes and even registering offences.