The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed a batch of petitions seeking action against politicians for hate speech that allegedly led to the North-East Delhi riots of 2020.
A Division Bench of Justices Vivek Chaudhary and Manoj Jain also dismissed a batch of petitions seeking an inquiry by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into alleged police atrocities that took place in Jamia Millia Islamia in 2019 during a march against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
A detailed copy of the judgement is awaited.
The order was passed in a batch of petitions seeking registration of FIRs against politicians for the speeches they delivered during the CAA and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) protests that allegedly instigated the riots in North East Delhi and ultimately led to the death of over 50 people.
One of the petitions, filed by Shaik Mujtaba Farooq, sought registration of FIRs against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders like Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra and Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma.
Another petition by Lawyers’ Voice sought prosecution of several opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Manish Sisodia Sisodia, Asaduddin Owaisi as well as a retired High Court judge.
The other petitions - including one by Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat and another by Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind - sought a court-monitored probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the role of the Delhi Police in the riots.
Yet another plea filed by activist Ajay Gautam sought probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the protests, alleging that there was an ‘international conspiracy’ and that the activists received ‘foreign funding’.
Meanwhie, several students of JMI also approached the High Court seeking SIT probe into police atrocities inside the university.
Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves with advocates Kamran Khwaja, Bhano Pathania, Pooja Mahajan and Urvashi Girdhar appeared for Shaikh Mujtaba Farooq.
Senior Advocate Kirti Uppal with advocates Neeraj, Sanskar Gupta, Tushar Hazrati and Prakhar Negi appeared for Lawyers Voice.
Advocate M Taiyab Khan appeared for Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju with Special Public Prosecutor Rajat Nair and advocates Dhruv Pande, Shivanshu Tripathi and Akshaja Singh appeared for the State.
Central Government Standing Counsel (CGSC) Ripu Daman Bhardwaj with advocates Khusagra Kumar and Amit Kumar Rana, and Special Panel Counsel Vedansh Anand with advocate K Garg appeared for the Union of India.
CGSC Syed Abdul Hajeeb with advocate Muhammad Aamir Khan also appeared for the Union.
CGSC Amit Tiwari with advocates Ayishi Srivastava, Arpan Narwal, Kushagra Malik and Ujjwal Tyagi appeared for the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Advocate KK Mishra, Additional Standing Counsel, appeared for Jamia Millia Islamia.
Advocate Tarannum Cheema represented Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.