Supreme Court seeks report from Uttarakhand on hate speech

The Supreme Court has sought a status report from the Uttarakhand government on the alleged hate speeches delivered at a dharam sansad held in the state. The direction came amid a second religious meet planned on Sunday.

A bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar permitted the petitioner to flag the local authorities about the proposed event so that the administration was aware of it. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal raised the issue of Sunday's dharam sansad through a fresh application filed in a pending PIL.

"There's another proposed event on Sunday. I don't know what to tell the court," he said, referring to reports about hate speeches against Muslims. Justice Khanwilkar ordered the state government to file a status report before the next hearing to allow the court to examine the issue.


The petition filed by Sumita Hazarika for petitioner Qurban Ali drew the court's attention to the alleged hate speeches at the Haridwar event and sought preventive action on the lines ordered by the top court in another case filed by Tehseen Poonawalla.

The PIL filed against the hate speeches claimed that these were not only being delivered with impunity, but the police was complicit. The top court had in the Poonawala case issued specific guidelines requiring state governments to proactively tackle cases of cow vigilantism.