SC asks HC to dispose of plea within three months

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday requested the Delhi High Court to dispose of expeditiously, preferably within three months, a plea seeking registration of FIR against four BJP leaders for their alleged hate speeches which purportedly led to the riots in north-east Delhi last year.

The plea, seeking direction to register FIRs against those who had made hate speeches that allegedly incited the public to engage in violence last year, came up for hearing before a bench of justices L N Rao and B R Gavai.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for three petitioners who are victims of the violence, told the bench that despite the Apex Court's order of March last year asking the high court to dispose of the petition as expeditiously as possible, no progress has been made in the matter.

"We are losing faith. How can anyone have faith in this system," he said.

"The High Court is delaying proceedings despite earlier direction by the Supreme Court (in March last year) to the High Court to decide matters in a time-bound manner," he said.

To this the court said, "We are not inclined to entertain this writ petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution of India. The writ petition is dismissed."

It requested the high court to dispose of the petition filed by the petitioners expeditiously, preferably within three months from today.

On March 4 last year too, the Apex Court had asked the high court to hear on March 6, 2020, a plea seeking lodging of FIRs against some BJP leaders for alleged hate speeches which purportedly led to the riots in Delhi.

It had said the high court may explore the possibility of "peaceful resolution" of the dispute.

The top court had passed the order last year while hearing a plea filed by 10 riot victims seeking registration of FIRs against BJP leaders Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra, Parvesh Verma and Abhay Verma and others for their alleged hate speeches.

On Friday, the apex court was hearing a plea, filed through advocate Satya Mitra, seeking action against political leaders whose hate speeches allegedly resulted in the riots in Delhi.