Must stop hate speeches but can't curb rallies pre-emptively, says SC

The Supreme Court on Wednesday maintained that though it wants hate speeches and incitement to violence to stop, it cannot pre-empt people’s right to free speech and assembly by restraining them from holding meetings or processions without first granting them an audience.

- Utkarsh Anand

Want hate speech to stop but can't put pre-emptive curbs: Apex court

A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta emphasised that the top court was inclined to strengthen the guidelines laid down by it in 2018 to prevent hate crimes and instigation for violence, including hate speeches, by making nodal officers and the police authorities at the district level accountable.

“After we passed the last order (on appointment of nodal officers), it did have an impact on the ground. It (hate speech) stopped...And we want it to stop,” the bench told senior counsel Kapil Sibal, who pressed for a direction to the authorities in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh for stopping rallies planned by Hindu Janajagruti Samiti and Bharatiya Janata Party MLA T Raja Singh later this week.

According to Sibal, the MLA from Telangana’s Goshamahal constituency was a habitual offender of hate speeches and was booked by the Maharashtra police in a separate case for allegedly making incendiary speeches at a rally in the Solapur district.

“See the kind of venom and hate that is being perpetrated. No action is being taken despite lodging of the FIR. There is no arrest, and he (Singh) keeps on. What’s the point of all this?” asked the senior counsel, requesting the court to stop the proposed rallies on January 18 and 19.