SC refers to HC plea regarding FIRs against BJP politicians for hate speech

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Delhi High Court to hear on March 6 petitions filed by 10 people affected by the recent violence in the national capital.

The affected people have sought registration of FIRs against politicians for alleged hate speeches.

The apex court asked the chief justice of the high court to deal with the matter along with other connected intervention and impleadment pleas as expeditiously as possible.

It also asked the high court to advance the date of other connected matters from April.

A bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant said, “The high court may explore the possibility of peaceful resolutions of the disputes.”

However, the apex court kept to itself the allegations of hate speech against activist Harsh Mander.

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It asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to file a sworn affidavit on behalf of the Centre about the allegations against Mander.

Mehta said he would file the affidavit in the post-lunch session with the apex court registry and serve the copy to the lawyer of Mander.

Manders lawyer, Karuna Nundy, denied that the activist made any such hate speeches as alleged by the Centre.

At the outset, when the matter came up for hearing, the bench asked senior advocate Colin Gonsalves whether Mander had made any statements against the government and Parliament.

At this point, Mehta said the activist did make serious and objectionable statements and referred a few of them.

Advocate Nundy said she was representing Mander and Gonsalves also said he had earlier appeared for the activist but at present, he was appearing for the riot-affected people.

During the hearing, the bench said along with the affidavit, the Centre will provide the transcripts of the alleged hate speech.

Before commencing the hearing, the bench made it clear that it was not going to hear Manders petition till it sorted out the allegations against him.

After that, the bench went ahead with the hearing on the petition filed by 10 riot-affected people who have sought registration of FIR against BJP politicians Kapil Mishra, Parvesh Mishra, Abhay Verma and Anurag Thakur.