'File better affidavit': Supreme Court raps Delhi Police over hate speech report

Delhi Police had told the top court that no specific words against any community were uttered at an event organised by the Hindu Yuva Vahini

The Supreme Court on Friday questioned the Delhi police over its stand that people had gathered to "save ethics of the community" during an event in Delhi held in December last, forcing the investigating agency to agree to file a better affidavit in an alleged hate speech case.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for petitioner-journalist journalist Qurban Ali and former judge Anjana Prakash, pointed towards police report which stated "statements were made to save ethics of the community".

"The court may have to decide constitutionally, what ethics are,” Sibal submitted before a bench presided over by Justice A M Khanwilkar, referring to the report by the investigating officer.

"Has any superior officer verified this? Has he merely reproduced the inquiry report or applied his mind?.... Is it your stand as well....is there just the reproduction of the inquiry report of the sub inspector level officer?" the bench asked Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj.

“Do you want to have a relook at the whole matter? Is this the stand of Commissioner of Delhi police?," the bench again asked Nataraj, who submitted that the matter will be re-examined and a better affidavit will be filed.

The court gave Delhi Police time to file a fresh affidavit on or before May 4 and put the matter for further hearing on May 9.

In its affidavit, the Delhi police had told the court they have closed complaints with regard to alleged hate speech at Dharma Sansad, saying after evaluation of the video clips, it was found that those did not contain any hate words against a particular community.

"There is no use of such words which would mean or could be interpreted as 'open call for genocide of Muslims' in order to achieve ethnic cleansing or an open call for murder of an entire community in the speech," it had said.

In a related development, the top court agreed to examine a plea by BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay related to hate speech and rumour mongering and a joint petition by Major General S G Vombatkere, Colonel P K Nair and Major Priyadarshi Chowdhury.

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