The Supreme Court on Friday, observing that there has to be harmony and comity between communities, said that the calls to boycott the Muslim community after the recent communal violence at Nuh was “unacceptable”, reported Bar and Bench.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SV Bhatti said that a committee can be led by the Director General of Police (DGP) should be formed to look into the cases registered following the recent communal clashes at Haryana’s Nuh, which also spilled over to neighbouring Gurugram. The death toll in the violence stood at five, including two home guards and a Muslim cleric.
“There has to be some harmony and comity between the communities. I do not know if this has been exaggerated, but anyhow this is not acceptable,” Justice Khanna remarked.
“This is my thought, we can ask the DGP to constitute a committee of three to four officers nominated by him and peruse all materials, and SHO etc., can forward all material to the committee and take a call if the material is authentic and issue directions to the concerned officer. At SHO level and police level, the police needs to be sensitized,” he added.
The bench asked Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj, appearing for the Centre, to seek instructions and inform it about the committee by August 18.
The top court was hearing a plea over alleged “blatant hate speeches” calling for killing members of a particular community and their social and economic boycott at rallies in different states, including Haryana. The plea was filed by journalist Shaheen Abdullah who relied on a video that surfaced on social media on August 2.
The plea said that the Samhast Hindu Samaj can be seen walking through a neighbourhood in Haryana’s Hisar and issuing warnings to residents and shopkeepers that if they continue to employ or keep any Muslims, their shops would be boycotted. All of this happened in the presence of the police, the plea contended.
It also added that impact of such rallies that “demonize communities” and openly call for violence and killing of people are not limited to the area in which such a rally is held. Rather, the petitioner contended that these rallies would inevitably lead to communal disharmony and violence of an unfathomable scale across the country.
The plea urged the top court to direct the state and district administration to ensure that rallies with such hate speeches are not allowed as it would affect communal harmony.
Meanwhile, the apex court has directed the petitioner to collate all the material, including video and submit to the nodal officers appointed in pursuance to its October 21, 2022 judgement.
The matter will be next heard on Friday (August 18).