The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear on Wednesday a plea seeking registration of FIRs against BJP leaders Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra and others for inflammatory speeches which allegedly resulted into largescale violence in the national capital.
A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde agreed to hear the plea filed by riots victims, observed that the court has limited powers and has never been able to prevent riots. The courts come into picture only after something has happened.
The observation by the top court came in response to senior advocate Colin Gonsalves’ submission that the Delhi High Court has deferred for four weeks the matter related to riots in the national capital despite the fact that everyday people are being killed in the violence.
“We are not saying that let people die. We cannot stop things from happening. We cannot give preventive reliefs. We feel certain kind of pressure on us and we are not equipped enough to handle it. Every day, we see reports in newspapers as if we are responsible for the violence. Courts come into the picture once something has happened. We are not equipped to prevent things from happening.”
“We can surely mitigate the deterioration of the situation,” Gonsalves responded.
The plea mentioned before the Chief Justice has asked the court to constitute a Special Investigation Team with officers from outside Delhi to probe the riots. It also sought for Constitution of an Inquiry Committee headed by a retired judge to probe the role of police personnel involved in rioting and criminal conduct.
A similar plea by activist Harsh Mander is pending before the Delhi High Court. Last week, a bench headed by DN Patel had adjourned the hearing in that matter till April 13 after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that the situation was not conducive to register FIRs against the BJP leaders for alleged hate speeches.
In a previous hearing on February 26, another division bench comprising justices S Muralidhar and Talwant Singh had directed the Delhi Police to take a conscious decision within 24 hours regarding registration of FIRs.