The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to entertain a plea seeking contempt action against the Ghaziabad district administration and Uttar Pradesh police for allowing a dharam sansad featuring advertisements with communal remarks.
The five-day event, organized by Yati Narasinghanand, a controversial priest known for his communally sensitive comments, began on December 17 in Ghaziabad.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna directed authorities to monitor the event closely and ensure it is recorded.
“Please keep track of what is happening, recordings of the event should be there. The mere fact that we are not entertaining this petition does not mean violations should occur,”said the bench, which also included Justice PV Sanjay Kumar.
While refusing to entertain the petition, the court said that its earlier orders requiring district officers to take precautionary measures to prevent hate speech must be followed.
The petitioners, including retired IAS officer Aruna Roy and former Planning Commission member Syeda Hameed, argued that the advertisements and the website for the dharam sansad openly incited hatred against the Muslim community. They claimed that despite their efforts to alert the Ghaziabad administration and police, no action was taken, violating the court’s previous directions on hate speech prevention.
The petitioners’ lawyer, Prashant Bhushan, highlighted Narasinghanand’s history of hate speech, urging action. However, the court advised the petitioners to approach the high court instead, noting that it would not be appropriate for the Supreme Court to handle such cases directly.
“We should not be the first court to be approached in such matters…if we entertain one, we will have to entertain all,” said CJI Khanna. He also mentioned that bail cancellations could be considered if there were violations by Narasinghanand, who is already on bail in several hate speech cases.
