The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought a response from the Uttar Pradesh government on why relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code were not invoked in connection with a 2021 hate crime in Noida.
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A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta gave the state government a week’s time to seek instructions and respond.
Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj, who appeared for UP, told the court that the state had initiated disciplinary proceedings against the investigating officer.
“Does that solve the problem of non-registration of the case for the appropriate provision? Because unless you register a case and seek a sanction, prosecution can’t go on…?” the bench said.
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Senior advocate Huzefa Ahmedi appearing for the petitioners argued the FIR ought to have been registered for the offences punishable under sections 153-B and 295-A of the IPC. During the arguments, he also highlighted a pattern where the state government had not taken cognizance of similar offences. However, the SC refused to expand the scope of the plea.
“Let’s keep this black and white. Presently there is one incident before us, we have no empirical evidence of any other such incident, and we would not delve into that,” the bench observed.
The petitioner claimed in his plea that he was a victim of a “dastardly hate crime” in Noida where he was “abused, tortured and systematically stripped of his dignity” by a group of individuals on July 4, 2021.
Detailing the incident, the petitioner has said he was attacked and derogatory words related to his “religious identity” were hurled at him.
The case will be heard next on February 13, 2026
Srijeeta Lahiri is an intern with The Indian Express.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta gave the state government a week’s time to seek instructions and respond. 
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