SC HATE SPEECH

dation made by the Law Commission of India in 2017.

In response to the first petition cited above, the Delhi Police filed an affidavit last week denying that there was anything said against Muslims that could be classified as hate speech in the Delhi event. The affidavit was filed by Deputy Commissioner of Police Esha Pandey, based on a report on the December 19 event prepared by the investigating officer, sub-inspector Abhishek Kumar of the Okhla police station.

A bench of justices AM Khanwilkar and AS Oka found the affidavit difficult to accept and said: “Has any superior officer applied their mind on whether such a statement can be made on affidavit?. Is this the understanding of the higher officers or they have merely reproduced what is stated in the enquiry report?.”

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the petitioners, told the court, “Please read the speech. I am not reading it. They say be ready to kill to protect the ethics of the community. This court may delineate what ethics are there in this issue. The speech was given by Sudershan News TV’s chief editor Suresh Chavhanke”.

The affidavit by the police said, “After inquiry and evaluation of the alleged video clip (of the Delhi incident), it was concluded that the alleged speech did not disclose any hate words against a particular community as alleged…and nothing was said or done which could create an environment of paranoia amongst any religion.”

The court asked additional solicitor general (ASG) KM Nataraj representing Delhi Police, “We hope this officer, being a senior officer, understands the nuances and other aspects of this affidavit? Is the officer accepting the contents of the (enquiry) report as correct or needs to have a relook at the entire matter?”

ASG Nataraj replied, “We need to have a relook of the matter. We will file a better affidavit explaining every circumstance.” The court directed the Delhi police to file a “better” affidavit by May 4 and posted the matter for hearing on May 9.

The Uttarakhand government, responding on the action taken against the Haridwar hate speech event submitted a status report. But this was not considered as Sibal said that he did not wish to press that issue for now and asked the court to look at a “more serious” Dharam Sansad held at Himachal Pradesh’s Una district from April 17-19. “What is said there is scandalous. Do you want me to read it?,” Sibal said. Since no lawyer was representing the state, the bench listed the matter separately on April 26 after Sibal said it needed to be heard urgently.

On the inaugural day of Dharam Sansad held at Una on April 17, Yati Narsinghanand said that “Hindus must have more children to make sure India doesn’t become an Islamic nation”. He claimed that 50% Hindus will be converted, and if they don’t become strong, 40% of their population will be wiped out in next 20 years.

A day later, he described himself as guard dog of Hindus whose job is to alert the community about the threats they were facing in the present times. “I am the guard dog of Hindus who is alerting them about the threat looming on the community. However, attempts are being made to suppress my voice by terming my statements divisive,” alleged the controversial priest of Dasna temple.

The Uttarakhand government’s lawyers told the court that in their status report they have updated the progress of investigation made in the four FIRs registered in connection with statements made at the Dharam Sansad and rival statements by Muslim community. The state represented by deputy advocate general Jatinder Kumar Sethi said, “The petition was filed questioning the action by Uttarakhand police and now when status report is filed, the petition goes to another state where elections are to be held. We are objecting to the locus (legal right) of the petitioner in this matter.”

In the Haridwar event several speakers, including Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati urged Hindus to take up weapons.

The bench also heard a petition filed by three army veterans against the hate speeches at Haridwar and Delhi but the bench refused to issue notice as the issue was already pending before it. It heard Upadhyay’s petition argued by senior advocate Vikas Singh that requested the court to consider international laws on the issue of hate speech as the Indian Penal Code was not sufficient to deal with such situations. “Anonymity of internet allows a miscreant to easily spread false and offensive ideas,” Upadhyay said

The court asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to file a response to the petition and posted the matter for May. can do it,” he said.

“A firm message has gone out from our friends to make progress, and I’m optimistic,” Johnson added.

During the joint media interaction with Modi, Johnson underscored the need to deepen cooperation between India and the UK, including keeping the Indo-Pacific open and free, in the face of threats such as “autocratic coercion”. In this context, he said the two sides had agreed on a new and expanded defence and security partnership that will also support the “Make in India” initiative. “The UK is creating an India-specific Open General Export License, reducing bureaucracy and slashing delivering times for defence procurement. We’ve agreed to work together to meet new threats across land, sea, air, space and cyber, including partnering on new fighter jet technology [and] maritime technologies to detect and respond to threats in the oceans,” he said.

Modi welcomed the UK’s support for “Atmanirbhar Bharat” (self-reliant India) in all sectors of manufacturing, technology, design and development in the defence sector.

“We also had discussions on the comprehensive reforms going on in India, our infrastructure modernisation plan and the National Infrastructure Pipeline. We welcome the increasing investment in India by UK companies,” Modi said.

Defence and security cooperation is one of the five pillars of the India-UK comprehensive strategic partnership and the Roadmap 2030. According to the joint statement, the two sides agreed to deepen cooperation, including by quickly resolving legacy issues and intensifying cooperation under the India-UK Defence and International Security Partnership framework.

The two sides also finalised a letter of arrangement between the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation to deliver advanced security capabilities through joint research, co-design, co-development and joint production of defence technology and systems.

As part of these efforts, India and the UK have established a joint working group on electric propulsion capability partnership with the goal of developing maritime electric propulsion systems. The two sides are also collaborating on modern fighter aircraft and jet engine technology.

“Both sides agreed to work bilaterally and with key partner countries to facilitate highest level access to technology to Indian industry,” the joint statement said.

India and the UK are also eyeing collaboration for manufacturing defence systems, spare parts, components and other related products under the “Make in India” programme through co-development, transfer of technology and setting up of joint ventures for meeting the needs of the armed forces of India and other countries.

When Johnson was asked about the steps to be taken by the UK to boost defence cooperation against the backdrop of the two countries not having signed any major defence deals since the 2003 contact for the Hawk jets, he replied that the focus would be on bringing Indian and British companies together for co-production and joint development that “satisfies the Make in India objective but also works in terms of technology transfers”.

The national security advisers and defence and foreign ministers of the two countries will “get together in a rolling programme so that we can make progress on this within a year”, Johnson added.

India and the UK also expressed serious concern on the situation in Afghanistan and the humanitarian crisis, violations of human rights and the hampered access of girls and women to education. Both prime ministers called on the Taliban to allow girls to return to secondary school, and Modi acknowledged the UK’s role in co-hosting the UN Afghanistan Conference for humanitarian response in March.

Johnson acknowledged India’s role in providing medical and food assistance to the Afghan people and the two leaders reaffirmed the importance of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2593, which unequivocally demands that Afghan territory not be used for sheltering, training, planning or financing terrorist acts.