Delhi riots: HC junks application against plea for probing hate speeches

The Delhi High Court on Thursday turned down an intervention application against a plea seeking special probe over alleged hate speeches linked to the anti-CAA protests by various politicians.

A bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani was hearing a clutch of pleas seeking a probe by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the northeast Delhi riots of 2020.

While dealing with the specific application, the court told advocate Pavan Narang, appearing for the applicant, that they are not a necessary party. Refusing to entertain the matter, the bench said: "Don't try to turn it into a circus. We are not keeping it pending. Your client is a gate crasher."

The application questioning the maintainability of the pleas by the petitioners --Lawyers Voice and Shaikh Mujtaba Farooq -- was followed by recent permission of the court given to them.

The court, in the last hearing, had granted liberty to Mujtaba and Lawyers Voice to implead proper and necessary parties in their pleas on the specific allegations of hate speeches by various politicians.

During the course of the hearing, Narang said: "We are not holding an inquiry under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952 wherein somebody is called, it whatever he may say may not be relied upon. You are asking some people as respondents to file their responses in affidavits and then say they are the proposed accused. What about their right under Article 21 and Article 20(3)?"

However, the bench said: "There is no question of even allowing an impleadment to remain pending. If the petitioner has no locus, then the intervenor should be nowhere in the scene, nowhere around."