Sometimes we failed to understand the motives of our judiciary. While we have more than 60,000 pending cases, the Supreme Court on Friday heard not one but two cases in two different benches targeting Suresh Chavhanke, calling him a ‘serial offender’ of ‘hate speech’, demanding serious action and arrest.
The honorable Supreme Court, which usually acts as a torchbearer of free speech and freedom of press, television channels, intellectual writers, activists, and journalists comes down heavily against the people who raise their voice against repeated abusing of Hinduism, Hindu Gods and Goddesses.
The current Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud made a startling remark in 2018 while hearing a case of provocative and anti national speeches given at the Elgar Parishad by Maoists and jihadis that resulted in deadly riots at Bhima Koregaon as mere ‘dissent and safety valve of democracy’.
The same Supreme Court is acting in a highly biased manner against the Sudarshan News and its founder Suresh Chavhanke. It even went ahead and waived the general settled principle of discouraging baseless arrests? Let us assess the cases in question against Suresh Chavhanke which makes the Supreme Court get more worked up against him than the anti national elements, jihadi, and Maoist terrorists.
Hate speech case against Suresh Chavhanke
The Supreme court bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha was hearing a contempt petition filed by Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. He argued that delay committed by the Delhi Police against people who gave allegedly hateful speeches and called for violence at the Dharam Sansad on 19th December 2021 is a gross violation of the directions given by the honorable Supreme Court in the 2018 judgement of Tehseen Poonawala case.
Here it is important to know that Suresh Chavhanke attended a Hindu Yuva Vahini program on 19th December 2021 in Govindpuri, Delhi. It was reported that he took an oath for a Hindu Rashtra in the name of Chattrapati Shivaji Maharaj for protecting Hindu Dharma, traditional values and culture. However, media has misreported this Hindu Yuva Vahini program as Dharma Sansad to drawing a parallel with the alleged Dharma Sansad program held in Haridwar in 2022 January, where some objectionable statements were made.
CJI Chandradchud on Friday rapped the Delhi Police for a five months delay in filing the FIR in the matter on 4th May 2022. The CJI bench also wanted to know why no charge sheet has been filed and no arrests made in the matter till now. Well, it seems CJI forgot his own words and wanted an immediate arrest of a journalist without even investigating the matter. Isn’t it a plain hypocrisy?
It seems the CJI and his bench forgot that Delhi Police has already submitted an affidavit in this matter in April 2022, where it clearly stated that no criminal offence is made out in the speeches made in Delhi ‘Dharam Sansad’ on 19th December 2021. Delhi police has conducted a careful examination of the seized video tapes and materials available in the public domain and given a sort of clean chit to Suresh Chavhanke.
The Delhi Police reportedly said that “After an in-deoth assessment and evaluation of the video contents, police did not find any substance in the videos as per the allegations levelled by the complainants. In the video clip of the Delhi incident, there is no utterance against any particular section of the society.
Hence, after inquiry and evaluation of the alleged video clip, it was concluded that the alleged speech did not disclose any hate words against a particular community as alleged or otherwise.” The Delhi Police had also informed the court that all complaints are now closed.
The Supreme Court was not pleased with the Delhi Police’s statement for the unknown reasons and it directed further investigations into the matter and also ordered police to file an FIR. They forced Delhi Police to file an FIR on 5th May 2022, where Suresh Chavhanke was made an accused and charged under Sections 153A, 295A, 298 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code for purported ‘hate speech’.
The CJI bench has now ordered that the Delhi Police should file the progress report in the case since May 2022 within two weeks and also take appropriate action to file a charge sheet in the matter.
However, Supreme Court’s directions and observations defy all the logic. If the hate speech did not exist in the original videos and contents evaluated till April 2022, from where does this new hate speech emerge? It seems more like a case of Delhi Police trying to create an imaginary offence to satisfy the outraged sentiments of the Supreme Court and not based on evidence and facts.
It seems the Supreme court is hell bent on accepting the demands of anti-Hindu and leftists activists like Tushar Gandhi to somehow frame Suresh Chavhanke. Here one more pertinent fact emerged that the contempt hearing was held without even giving a notice to Suresh Chavhanke to make his representation and give his statement in the matter to defend himself. Isn’t this unfair and against the principle of natural justice?
Notably, the test of hate speech meriting an offence has always been stressed by the Supreme Court as a call for violence in the speech and any consequent violence or riots resulting due to the concerned hate speech. In Suresh Chavhanke’s matter none seems to be the case, yet the Supreme Court in its urge to satisfy its own woke ‘minority’ appeasement wants to curb the fundamental right to free speech and right to life and liberty of Suresh Chavhanke by berating the Delhi Police to make arrests and file charge sheet.
The same Supreme Court never bothered about the hateful, anti-hindu, and anti-national speeches by Sharjeel Imam, Tasleem Rahmani, Akbaruddin Owaisi, Waris Pathan, Amanatullah Khan, Mohammed Zubair, Munnavar Rana, Tauqeer Raza Khan, Maulana Sajid Rashid, Ilyas Sharafuddin, Zakir Naik, Prof. Ratan Lal, Saba Naqvi, Arfa Khanum Sherwani, Rana Ayyub, etc. The list is endless so as the list of Supreme Court’s hypocrisy.
