The Supreme Court on Monday while hearing a batch of petitions seeking to regulate hate speech, indicated that not everything said would amount to hate speech.
A division bench of Justice K.M. Joseph and Justice B.V. Nagarathna referred to its recent direction to stay proceedings against Delhi CM, Arvind Kejriwal.
“Two days back we stayed proceedings against Arvind Kejriwal. He brought a list of decisions as to what is S. 153A. Not everything said amounts to hate speech. And the application of Section 153A would be heavily reliant on the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the provision,” the bench stated.
On 17th February, the Supreme Court stayed the trial proceedings in a 2014 case registered against Kejriwal for allegedly saying “those who believe in ‘Khuda’ won’t be pardoned by ‘Khuda’ if they vote for BJP” during an election campaign.
During the hearing on Monday, Justice Joseph stated that our civilisation, our knowledge, is eternal and that we should not diminish it by engaging in hate speech.
Mr. Tushar Mehta, the Solicitor General of India, stated at the outset that two applications had been filed in the matter regarding allegations of hate speech in some rallies.
He informed the Bench that he had been served with copies of the application the day before the hearing and would require some time to take instructions.
Mr. Nizam Pasha, an advocate representing the applicant, Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, stated that there were instances of hate speech at the rallies.
Justice Joseph reminded him that there is no definition of hate speech, so the Court should proceed with caution. It has to rely on allied provisions in the Indian Penal Code in this regard.
For a speech to qualify as hate speech, Justice Nagarathna added that it must contain an element of vilification.
Mr. Pasha reminded the Bench that, on the previous occasion, the Court had directed the police to videotape and make available to the court the meeting proposed by Sakal Hindu Samaj on February 5, 2023 in the state of Maharashtra. As a result, the Bench directed the Solicitor General to file the same.
The Court indicated that all the applications would be taken up with the main petitions on 21st March, 2023.
“List all the applications, till the time there is a common enemy, i.e., hate. Remove hate from the mind and see the difference”, Justice Joseph noted.
