Supreme Court to hear on April 17 plea against violence during Ram Navami

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear on April 17 a plea for a direction to West Bengal, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Telangana governments to assess the loss of properties and injuries suffered by people during the violence witnessed during 'Ram Navami' procession on March 30 and subsequently and pay them adequate compensation.

A bench presided over by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud fixed the date of hearing on an application filed by 'Hindu Front for Justice', through advocates Vishnu Shankar Jain and Hari Shankar Jain, upon a mention made by the counsel.

The plea contended that it is unfortunate that in independent India, Hindus are not being allowed to take our religious processions peacefully and to observe their customary rites and rituals and the respective state governments have failed to take appropriate steps to prevent such mishappenings.

It cited large-scale violence, and arson committed in a pre-planned manner in different parts of the country, namely, at Howrah, Uttar Dinajpur (West Bengal), Sasaram and Nalanda (Bihar), Hyderabad (Telangana), Aurangabad (Maharashtra), Vadodara (Gujarat), Jamshedpur (Jharkhand) among others.

It sought a direction to the state governments to recover the loss caused to the persons committed in connection with the Ram Navami festival from miscreants after due verification and direct the state governments to take preventive measures so that in future the incident of attacks or disturbing the Shobha Yatra on Ram Navami festival and other festivals may not take place.

Referring to details of the violent incidents, the applicant also said it is unfortunate that Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal talked about ‘Muslim dominated areas’ and asked the Hindus not to takeout processions through such areas.

"This concept is against the very theme of the Constitution," it said.

The plea also stated the state governments must provide full protection to the processions taken out on Ram Navami Day or other religious processions by Hindus.

It also said the Chief Secretaries of the concerned state governments should be directed to submit a report regarding the causes which led to mob attacks and violence committed on Shri Ram Shobha Yatra on March 30, 2023 and register FIR into the incidents and initiate criminal proceedings against the culprits.

The application, filed in a pending petition of Qurban Ali with regard to hate speech, also sought a direction to the state governments to comply with the guidelines issued in the case of Tehseen Poonawalla vs Union of India (2018) with regard to mob lynching and violence.