‘GOVT SHOOTS MESSENGER’
NEWDELHI: The Centre, by insisting on contempt of court action against activist Harsh Mander for a purported December speech, is trying to “shoot the messenger”, Mander’s lawyer Dushyant Dave told the Supreme Court on Friday. Mander had moved the court seeking registering of FIRS against BJP leaders for alleged hate speech during CAA protests.
nNEW DELHI: The Union government, by insisting on contempt of court action against activist Harsh Mander for a purported December speech, is trying to “shoot the messenger”, Mander’s lawyer, senior counsel Dushyant Dave, told the Supreme Court on Friday.
Dave maintained that the speech by Mander, delivered at Jamia Milia Islamia university in Delhi, did not contain anything objectionable or contemptuous as alleged by Delhi police. He said the government was attempting to muzzle Mander’s freedom by curtailing his right to move the court.
“It is a serious issue. My right to move the court is being curtailed. The government wants to shoot the messenger,” Dave submitted.
At a rally in Jamia Milia against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, Dave had allegedly said that he does not have faith in the Supreme Court and that the top court did not safeguard “humanity, secularism and equality” in the cases relating to the National Register of Citizens (NRC), Ayodhya and Kashmir.
He also allegedly said he would take the CAA issue to the Supreme Court although the real battle will have to take place on the streets.
Dave told the court that the Delhi police had submitted a truncated version of the speech and demanded that the police explain which part of the speech was objectionable.
“The speech attributed to him is not contemptuous. I have gone through entire the speech. Which part of the speech is objectionable?”
The court asked Mander to file his response to the allegations made by Delhi police and fixed April for the hearing.
The speech came under the Supreme Court’s radar on Wednesday after the Centre’s second senior-most law officer, solicitor general Tushar Mehta, representing the Delhi police, brought it to the court’s notice during the hearing of a plea by Mander seeking the registration of first information reports (FIRS) against Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra, Parvesh Verma and Abhay Verma for alleged hate speech.
Mander had initially moved the Delhi high court alleging that the speeches by the BJP leaders had sparked the February 23-25 riots in north-east Delhi that left 53 people dead. The high court adjourned Mander’s plea to April, prompting him to challenge that order in the Supreme Court.
“If this is what you feel about then we have to decide what to do with you,” Chief Justice of India SA Bobde had remarked on
Wednesday.
The Court then asked the police to file transcripts of the speech, which the department did the same evening.
“The speech brings this court into disrepute,” the solicitor general told the court on Friday when the matter came up for hearing again.
“There is nothing in the speech which brings the court into disrepute,” Dave countered.
Mehta also told the court that the police were in possession of a copy of another speech by Mander which he claimed was also contemptuous.
“We have found one more speech by the very same person which is contemptuous,” he said.
Dave urged Mehta to file similar affidavits against leaders responsible for instigating violence in the national capital. “I beseech you to file similar affidavits against other leaders too,” Dave said.