VHP and Bajrang Dal rallies in Delhi NCR: SC directs Police authorities to ensure that no hate speeches and violence take place
Today, an Interlocutory Application (IA) was moved in the Supreme Court (SC) by Senior Advocate (SA) Chander Uday Singh seeking to stop the VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) and Bajrang Dal rallies in the Delhi-NCR region. The rallies were carried out in the wake of communal clashes in Nuh and Gurugram. The matter was mentioned for urgent listing before a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court including Justice Bela M Trivedi and Justice Aniruddha Bose. The matter was to be mentioned before the CJI DY Chandrachud but could not be done because a Constitution bench of the SC headed by the Chief Justice of India is hearing the Article 370 case. While mentioning the matter for urgent hearing, SA Singh submitted “This is a fresh IA in the hate speech case where a judgment was delivered, Shaheen Abdullah case. In Delhi, yesterday it was said that 27 protest meetings are planned to protest against what happened at Nuh (Haryana).” In this context, Justice Bose stated that the power to accommodate the urgent request lies with the CJI; therefore, he was unsure whether he can do the same or not. He added, “Just confirm from the Chief Justice of India about whether we can take mentionings. (Then) we will accommodate”.
SA Singh approached CJI seeking clarity regarding the matter, “I am really sorry to do this. A clarification is needed on whether Hon’ble Justice Bose’s bench can hear mentioning, This is something very urgent…” CJI said “There is a provision in the SOP. circulate an email. I have said that however urgent something is, once the mentioning is not available or the mentioning is over, an email will be put up to me by the Registrar, listing. I will pass the orders immediately. Just read the SOP, it has everything in it.” He further added, “Yesterday, every mentioning request that was made until late at night 9 PM was attended to. In fact, I was, in fact, a little more liberal because I knew that this is going to happen, that we the first five are going to be in the Constitution bench. All requests have been granted. If there is something over and above that, the SOP has a provision even for that. Follow the SOP, I’ll give you a date immediately.” SA Singh responded, “We will send that email immediately. There is something very dire.”
A special sitting of SC was held at 2 PM today, after mentioning the matter before CJI where Justice SV Bhatti and Justice Sanjiv Khanna heard the matter. The bench ordered the police authorities to ensure that no hate speeches and violence took place during the protest in the wake of the communal violence in Nuh and Gurugram. The SC also directed to video record the rallies and preserve the footage for further use if any untoward incident takes place. It ordered, “We hope and trust that the State Governments, including police authorities, will ensure that there are no hate speeches against any community and there is no violence or damage to properties. Wherever required, adequate police or paramilitary forces must be deployed. Further, authorities must take use of the CCTV cameras where installed or make video recordings in all sensitive areas wherever required. The CCTV footage and the videos will be preserved.”
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