SC orders crackdown on hate speech

A Bench led by Justice B S Chauhan asked the Law Commission to examine if the Election Commission should be conferred the power in law, enabling it to derecognise a political party and disqualify its members for hate speeches.

“We request the Law Commission to also examine the issues raised herein thoroughly and also to consider, if it deems proper, defining the expression “hate speech” and make recommendations to Parliament to strengthen the Election Commission to curb the menace of ‘hate speeches’ irrespective of whenever made,” said the Bench which also comprised Justices M Y Eqbal and A K Sikri.

The court said there was no definition of “hate speech” under any statute and also that the power of the EC to take actions for hate speeches was confined to the subsistence of the model code of conduct and not otherwise.

It also noticed that the EC did not have the power to de-register or derecognise a political party under the Representation of the People Act once it had been registered.

Disposing of a PIL filed by NGO ‘Pravasi Bhalai Sangathan’, the Bench observed that there were statutory provisions and particularly penal laws, providing for sufficient remedy to curb the menace of hate speeches, but they were not being properly implemented.

The Bench said hate spee-ches will be a matter of facts and hence any blanket order could turn out to be a “judicially unmanageable order which is incapable of enforcement”.

The PIL contended that hate speeches destroy the fabric of democracy. It cited alleged hate speeches by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray and by All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Akbaruddin Owaisi.