Nuh Violence: Supreme Court moots setting up DGP-led committee, says boycott calls against Muslims unacceptable

The Supreme Court on Friday opined that the calls to boycott the Muslim community after the recent outbreak of violence at Nuh, Haryana was unacceptable. [Shaheen Abdullah vs Union of India].A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and SV Bhatti also mooted formation of a committee led by the Director General of Police (DGP) to look into the cases registered following the Nuh communal clashes. "There has to be some harmony and comity between the communities. I do not know if this has been exaggerated, but anyhow this is not acceptable. This is my thought, we can ask the DGP to constitute a committee of three to four officers nominated by him and peruse all materials, and SHO etc., can forward all material to the committee and take a call if the material is authentic and issue directions to the concerned officer. At SHO level and police level, the police needs to be sensitized," Justice Khanna remarked..The bench was considering a plea for action against calls made to boycott and alienate Muslims following the recent outbreak of communal violence in Nuh district, Haryana.The plea was filed by one, Shaheen Abdullah who relied on a video that surfaced on social media on August 2.The plea said that the Samhast Hindu Samaj can be seen walking through a neighbourhood in Hisar, Haryana and issuing warnings to residents and shopkeepers that if they continue to employ or keep any Muslims, their shops would be boycotted. This happened in the presence of police officials, the Court was told. The plea added that the impact of such rallies that "demonize communities" and openly call for violence and killing of people are not limited to the area in which such a rally is held. Rather, the petitioner contended that these rallies would inevitably lead to communal disharmony and violence of an unfathomable scale across the country.The petitioner, therefore, urged the Court to direct the State and district administration to ensure that rallies with such hate speeches are not allowed as it would affect communal harmony..Appearing for the Central government, additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj said that the government does not support hate speech. However, he added that in some places, the mechanism to tackle hate speech is not working.Meanwhile, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal highlighted that the speeches in question were made in the presence of the police. The bench eventually proceeded to adjourn the matter till next Friday, August 18..According to Hindustan Times, Violence in Nuh broke out on July 31 after a mob attacked a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) procession following rumours that cow vigilante Monu Manesar would be participating in the march.As per NDTV, at least five people were killed in the ensuing clashes and at least 70 were injured, including policemen. The police have registered about 40 cases and arrested over 80 people in connection with the communal violence, it was further reported.The VHP later announced that they would hold protests over the violence in the NCR. To halt the same, the Supreme Court was approached for a stay on such protests. However, on August 2, the Court declined to stay the protests but ordered the State government and the Delhi police to ensure that no hate speech or violence took place during the protest rallies.