Hate speeches: Govt wants to shoot messenger, says Mander’s Counsel

New Delhi: Activist Harsh Mander, who the government claims instigated people to take to violence over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), on Friday accused the government of not going after the real culprits behind the violence and instead trying to “shoot the messenger”.

“There is nothing contemptuous or disparaging in his speech,” Mander’s lawyer, Dushyant Dave, told a bench led by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde. “The government wants to shoot the messenger. It wants to browbeat us,” he said.

The CJI said he had not issued a notice in the case to Mander and asked him to place his response to the allegations against him.


Solicitor general Tushar Mehta had at the last hearing painted Mander as the culprit behind the violence which recently rocked Delhi. More than 50 people have died in the violence.

Mehta said the Delhi Police had since come across another speech of his which was also contemptuous. The police are seeking contempt action against him.

The SG said the Delhi Police had already placed the material against Mander by way of an affidavit.

He also pointed out the manner in which Mander had sought recusal of former CJI Ranjan Gogoi in an earlier case.

Mander had sought the former CJI’s recusal when instead of improving the living conditions in detention centres as he had sought, the CJI had made it all about illegal migration into Assam and the National Register of Citizens. CJI Gogoi had then removed him from the case.

Dave dared Mehta to bring similar affidavits against those who had delivered hate speeches blamed for the violence. The court will now hear the case on March 15.

Mander had moved the Delhi High Court seeking its intervention to get the Delhi Police to take immediate action against those who had made inflammatory speeches leading to the violence in Delhi. They allegedly included BJP leaders Kapil Mishra, Anurag Thakur, and Abhay and Pravesh Verma.

That case is still pending with the high court. After the top court said adjourning of that case for over a month was “unjustified”, the high court on Friday heard the case and listed it for further hearing next week.