New Delhi: The Supreme Court has said there is no room for hate crime in a secular country like India, and it is the primary duty of the state to protect its citizens from such crimes, news agency PTI reported.
A two-judge bench of Justice K.M. Joseph and Justice B.V. Nagaratna said “there cannot be any compromise on hate speech at all”, while adding that only when the state acknowledges such crimes can a solution be found.
The court’s observations came on Monday, February 6, during a hearing on a petition filed by a Muslim man who had alleged that he was attacked and abused in the name of his religion by some ‘screwdriver gang’ as he boarded a car to go to Aligarh from Noida on July 4, 2021. He had alleged that police did not bother to register a complaint when he approached them.
At this stage, the bench told additional solicitor general, K.M. Nataraj, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh, “If a person comes to the police and says that I was wearing a cap and my beard was pulled and abused in the name of religion and still no complaint is registered, then it is a problem.”
The bench then further went on to say, “Will you not acknowledge that there is a hate crime and you will sweep it under the carpet? We are not saying anything adverse. We are only expressing our anguish. That is all.”
This story was originally published in thewire.in . Read the full story here