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Karat's plea refers to various speeches made by the two politicians including the speech dated January 27, 2020 given by Anurag Thakur at a rally shouting the slogan "desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaron saalon ko". Reference was also made to another speech made by Parvesh Verma dated January 27-28, 2020 while campaigning for Bhartiya Janata Party and subsequently in an interview given to ANI
A division bench of the Supreme Court today adjourned the hearing in a plea by Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat to October 3, 2023, whereby she is seeking registration of FIRs against Union Minister Anurag Thakur and Bharatiya Janata Party Leader Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma for allegedly making hate speeches in the year 2020, at a rally in Rithala on January 27 and 28th.
While adjourning the matter, the bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Pankaj Mithal told Additional Solicitor General SV Raju that no further adjournment will be granted to the respondents in the case.
On April 17, a bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna had issued notice on Karat's plea while deliberating on judicial pronouncements that exist for purposes of registration of FIRs against public servants while the lawyer for Karat informed Court that the wounds of the past will not be healed unless an FIR is registered against the political leaders.
The Court was hearing an appeal against last year's Delhi High Court judgment challenging a trial court decision that had refused to order registration of FIRs against Thakur and Verma.
It is the petitioners case that during a rally in the national capital on January 27, 2020, Thakur used the slogan — “shoot the traitors”– after lashing out at anti-CAA protesters of Shaheen Bagh and Verma delivered an inflammatory speech against the protestors on January 28.
Noteworthily, the investigating report had stated that the the Hindi word for traitor's which was used by the leaders could not have been attributed to a person of any specific community and that Verma's speech could not have triggered the acts of violence that followed.
The plea in Supreme Court is against a Delhi High Court judgment in which Justice Chandra Dhari Singh of Delhi High Court had refused to interfere in a trial court order which stating that under the law sanction is required to be obtained from the competent authority for registration of FIR in the present facts.
The High Court had observed that bypassing the procedure under the Criminal Procedure Code Code was "in vogue these days". The judgment says, “The beauty of procedural law lies in the stages and remedies available during the course of a criminal proceeding.”
Case Title: Brinda Karat vs. State of NCT Delhi
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