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Anjel Chakma murder: SC asks Attorney General to examine plea seeking guidelines against racial crimes
Advocate Anoop Prakash Awasthi filed the petition after the alleged racially motivated murder of Tripura man Anjel Chakma in Uttarakhand in December last year.
The petition by Advocate Anoop Prakash Awasthi comes after the alleged racially motivated murder of Tripura man Anjel Chakma in Uttarakhand in December last year. (File Photo)
The Supreme Court on Wednesday cautioned that creating mechanisms to address crimes based on victims’ regional identity may be counterproductive, and asked a petitioner seeking directions to set up a nodal agency in states to deal with grievances regarding identity-based discrimination to approach the Attorney General.
The petition by Advocate Anoop Prakash Awasthi comes after the alleged racially motivated murder of Tripura man Anjel Chakma in Uttarakhand in December last year.
“The moment we start entertaining litigation where, unfortunately, the victims are identified because of their region, the negative message…will be, people will start identifying he is Keralite, Tamilian, Haryanvi, Punjabi, Kashmiri… We are a strong country with a federal structure, we are supposed to be stronger with unity and not to be identified like this with regions…,” Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said.
“A crime is a crime. It should be dealt with by an iron hand. But if you start identifying special treatment… it will again lead to a regressive thing. After 75 years of Independence, should we think of this…?” the CJI asked.
The bench said the plea raises “vital questions for the creation of a stringent and robust mechanism under the penal laws for prevention of group-based violence on the grounds of race, place of birth, language, etc.”
“As of now, we deem it appropriate that the aforesaid issues ought to be brought before the competent authority through the good offices of the learned AG.”
‘This is a very big issue’
Awasthi, who appeared in person, submittedC before the bench also comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi that such racially motivated violence is a reality and nothing is being done about it.
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“It is very painful. I have so many friends from the Northeast. This exists. Nobody can deny it. This is a very big issue. If something happens, the bystander will just smile and go away while the fellow gets attacked,” he said.
The bench asked him to provide a representation to the relevant authorities, to which Awasthi said it had already been done, but to no avail. He said that in 2017, the then Minister of State for Home, Kiren Rijiju, stated in Parliament that there was no plan to create any nodal agency. He pointed out that there was no provision for such a mechanism in the new criminal code either.
CJI Kant said parliamentarians, who are people’s representatives, “understand the psyche, the sensitivity, the nuance, the fabric of the society” and “must have realised what are the negative consequences of” doing something like that.
The petitioner urged the bench that “somewhere, some grievance redressal mechanism should be there,” at least on campuses.
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The bench said that his petition can be submitted to the AG, who can forward it to the relevant authorities for consideration as a representation.
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