New Delhi: The Supreme Court Wednesday declined to pass any orders on a contempt petition, against Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin regarding his statements on 'Sanatana Dharma', saying that “if we start entertaining contempt, we will be flooded with it”.
The apex court stressed that in a country as big as India, there will be problems but the question is whether "we have enough administrative machinery in place to take action wherever required". “Society must know that if you indulge in it then there will be some state action,” the bench said.
A bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Justice S.V.N. Bhatti was dealing with a batch of pleas connected with instances of hate speeches in the country, which included a plea seeking contempt action against Udhayanidhi Stalin, regarding his remarks against Sanatana Dharma.
Justice Khanna said that if courts begin to examine individual cases, it will not be able to deal with the main matter (hate speech) itself, adding that it will be ‘impossible’ to hear individual cases across the country.
“We cannot deal with individual aspects. What we will do is to put an administration mechanism in place and if there is any breach, then you will have to go to the respective high court," said Justice Khanna.
Regarding Stalin’s matter, advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain submitted that he has filed a contempt petition against Udaynidhi Stalin for his remarks. Justice Khanna said, "The contempt petition will not lie here. Please go to the high court."
Jain pressed that earlier the apex court had considered similar cases and cited the case against Sudarshan News TV editor Suresh Chavhanke. Jain said, “The instances of hate speech are in teeth of the court's order. When a similar case was filed, the court had issued notice. See the Sudarshan news channel case…..”.
The apex court clarified that hate speech has been defined by this court, the question is of implementation and understanding how it is to be applied as to in which cases it is to be applied and in which case it has not been applied. “We cannot go into individual cases”, the bench reiterated.
Advocate Nizam Pasha submitted that the difficulty that we need to address is when the same person who has made hate speeches in the past and FIRs have been registered, asks for permission to conduct speeches and permissions are granted. Pasha stressed that they are repeat offenders.
The apex court also issued notice to Gujarat, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Nagaland, to respond whether they appointed nodal officers in terms of the 2018 judgment in Tehseen Poonawalla case to deal with hate crimes and mob violence. The apex court has scheduled the matter for further hearing on February 5, 2024.
Earlier this month, the Centre had informed the Supreme Court that 28 states and union territories have appointed nodal officers to devise a strategy to tackle lynching and mob violence following hate speech incidents in the country.
The affidavit has been filed by the deputy secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs before the apex court on November 17, in compliance with the court's directions in the judgment titled Tehseen Poonawalla v. Union of India Ors (2018).
On August 25, 2023, the apex court had directed the central government to file a status report. “Learned Additional Solicitor General states that the Home Ministry will ascertain and get information from the State Government(s) regarding appointment of the Nodal Officer(s), and status report will be filed within a period of three weeks from today. In case, any State government does not furnish information/ details, the said factum will be stated...", said the apex court, in its order passed on August 25. The Centre’s response came on a plea filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay against incidents of hate speech.
The states, which have filed their responses in compliance with the 2018 judgment are Andhra Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Goa, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, UT of Ladakh, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Odisha, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.
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