Hate speech: SC adjourns Brinda Karat's plea against Anurag Thakur, Parvesh Verma to Oct 3

New Delhi: The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday adjourned the hearing on a plea filed by senior CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat challenging the Delhi High Court’s order that dismissed a petition against the trial court's refusal to order registration of an FIR against Union Minister Anurag Thakur and BJP MP Pravesh Verma for allegedly giving hate speeches during anti-CAA protests.

A bench comprising Justices Abhay S. Oka and Pankaj Mithal fixed the hearing on October 3 after Additional Solicitor General SV Raju submitted a request for adjournment. The top court further clarified that no further adjournment would be granted to the respondent in the case.

The bench said that if necessary, the Registry will seek orders from the Chief Justice of India for tagging the present plea for hearing before Justice Sanjiv Khanna-led, which is dealing with the larger issue of hate speech.

Earlier in April this year, the apex court had issued notice to the Delhi Police on the plea filed by Karat. The top court had noted that prima facie the stand of the magistrate that sanction was required for registration of the FIR against the BJP leaders was not correct, saying that the reasoning of courts below that sanction under Section 196 of the CrPC was required may not be correct.

The Delhi High Court, in June last year, had dismissed the petition filed by CPI(M) leaders Karat and KM Tiwari and declined to interfere with the trial court's order.

In their complaint before the trial court, the petitioners had claimed that the BJP leaders had sought to incite people as a result of which three incidents of firing took place at two different protest sites in Delhi.

According to the petitioners, at a rally in Rithala in the national capital on January 27, 2020, Thakur egged on the crowd to raise an incendiary slogan, ''shoot the traitors'', after lashing out at anti-CAA protesters of Shaheen Bagh. They claimed Verma, too, made an inflammatory speech against the Shaheen Bagh protesters on January 28, 2020.

In August 2021, the trial court dismissed the petitioners' complaint, saying that it was not sustainable as the requisite sanction from the central government, which was the competent authority, had not been obtained.

In their complaint, Karat and Tiwari had sought FIRs against the two BJP leaders under various sections, including 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc.), 153-B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the IPC.

They had also sought action under other sections of the IPC, including 298 (uttering, words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation).

With inputs from IANS