Supreme Court condemns murder of Tripura's Anjel Chakma, violence against North East students

The Supreme Court on Wednesday observed that the murder of Anjel Chakma, a 24-year-old MBA student from Tripura who was killed in what is suspected to be a racially motivated attack, was an unfortunate incident.

A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) petition moved in the wake of the murder, raising concerns regarding rising attacks faced by students from North East India at educational institutions.

Advocate Anoop Prakash Awasthi, representing the petitioner, pointed out that in his experience, even bystanders are rarely keen to step in when such racially motivated attacks take place.

The Court remarked that such incidents must be curbed with an iron hand, but added that the introduction of laws to target such issues should be left to the legislature to handle.

"Of course, it is unfortunate, and such incidents have to be treated with iron hands, but it is something which parliament has to consider," CJI Kant orally observed.

The petition before the Court sought for the introduction of penal provisions to prevent group-based violence on the grounds of race, place of birth, race, language, etc.

The plea also sought guidelines from the Court to prevent such violence until a suitable law is brought into force.

Since the issue was one that fell within the policy-making realm, the Court requested the Attorney General for India (AG) to refer the matter to the competent authority for consideration.

"We are of the view that the aforesaid issues should be brought before the competent authority by the good office of the Attorney General for India. Plea disposed of with liberty to petitioner to hand over soft copy of petition to the office of AG along with a copy of this order," the Court ordered.