Delhi High Court on Monday upheld the trial court’s order and dismissed the plea by CPI(M) leaders Brinda Karat and K.M. Tiwari, which asked to file FIR against a couple of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders for alleged hate speeches. Karat had filed the plea with the higher court in October 2021, challenging the trial court’s verdict.
Karat and Tiwari had filed a plea with the Trial court, in which they said that BJP leaders Anurag Thakur and Parvesh Verma made hate speech on January 27, 2020, against the Citizenship Amendment Act (Bill) protesters. The plea explained that during the protest rally in Rithala, Thakur provoked the crowd by shouting comments like ‘shoot the traitors.’ As for Verma, the plea said he made derogatory, false and communal statements against the protesters in Shaheen Bagh. However, the trial court dismissed the plea.
The Delhi High Court bench too rejected the plea and remarked that the petitioners should have approached the revisional court, instead of directly filing with the High Court. As such, the evidence presented in the case is not satisfactory.
Justice Singh further explained, “If such investigations are ordered in a routine manner for offences under Section 295-A, 153-A, and Section 505, that would lead to a situation where thousands of FIRs would be registered to settle scores against political opponents across the country.” He said that this situation was not welcome as it would be an ‘abuse of the process’ and will only lade the already overburdened criminal justice system.
