Plea on hate speech: SC permits petitioner to implead Election Commission as party

The Supreme Court Friday permitted a petitioner who is seeking direction to the Centre to examine international laws and take effective and stringent steps to control hate speech and rumourmongering in the country to implead the Election Commission as a party in the matterThe apex court which posted the matter for hearing on May 19 granted liberty to the petitioner to serve a copy of the petition to the standing counsel for concerned respondentsA bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and J B Pardiwala was hearing a plea filed by lawyer and BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay in his personal capacity which has alternatively sought a direction to the Centre to take apposite steps to implement recommendations of the Law Commission Report267 on hate speechUpadhyay requested the bench to issue notice to the Election Commission EC in the matterHow Election Commission is concerned with this issue the bench askedUpadhyay said hate speech frequently happens during the model code of conduct during the election periodThe bench told the petitioner that he has not made EC a party in his pleaHe urged the bench to allow him to serve a copy of the petition on the ECAt the oral request made by the counsel for the petitioner the petitioner is permitted to amend the cause title so as to implead the Election Commission of India as a party respondent the bench saidAt the outset the bench observed that petitions raising the issue of hate speech and hate crime would come up for hearing on May 19 and the plea filed by Upadhyay would also be heard on that dayWe are not on a particular incident We are seeking implementation of Law Commission report 267 the petitioner saidThe bench observed it would be relevant for the other matter also which would come up for hearing on May 19When the petitioner raised the issue of hate speech at the time of the election the bench observed that the regime should be the same on hate speech irrespective of the election periodThe petitioner is filing this writ petition as a PIL seeking writorderdirection to the Centre to examine the international laws relating to hate speech and rumourmongering and take apposite effective stringent steps to control hate speech and rumourmongering in order to secure rule of law freedom of speech and expression and Right to Life Liberty and Dignity of citizens the plea has saidIt has urged that the government be asked to take appropriate steps to implement the recommendations of Law Commission Report267 on hate speechThe injury to the citizens is extremely large because hate speech and rumourmongering has the potential of provoking individuals or society to commit acts of terrorism genocides ethnic cleansing etc Hate speech is considered outside the realm of protective discourse it saidIn 2012 around 50000 citizens from northeastern states moved from their residences across India and rushed to their native places after the circulation of false images of violent incidents that took place not in India but Myanmar several years ago it saidReferring to existing penal provisions on hate speech in the Indian Penal Code the plea said that this is an incitement to hatred primarily against a group of persons defined in terms of raceethnicity gender sexual orientation religious belief and it poses complex challenges to freedom of speechexpressionA difference of approach is discernible between the US and other democracies In the US it is given constitutional protection whereas under international human rights covenants and in other western democracies such as Canada Germany and the UK it is regulated and subject to sanctions In view of this the petitioner is of the opinion that new provisions in IPC are required to be incorporated to address the issues elaborately it saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever