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Hate speech involving Yogi Adityanath: SC reserves verdict on plea against high court order | India News

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NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its verdict on a plea challenging the Allahabad high court judgement in a matter pertaining to the alleged hate speech of 2007 involving Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
In its verdict delivered in February 2018, the high court had said it has not found any procedural error either in the conduct of an investigation or in the decision-making process of refusal to grant sanction to prosecute.
The plea challenging the high court order came up for hearing before a bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Hima Kohli and C T Ravikumar.
Advocate Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi, appearing for the petitioner, referred to one of the issues mentioned in the high court which reads: “Whether the state can pass an order under section 196 CrPC in respect of a proposed accused in a criminal case who in the meantime gets elected as the chief minister and is the executive head as per the scheme provided under Article 163 of the Constitution of India.”
He said this issue was not dealt with by the high court.
“One more issue, once you go on merits according to the judgement and according to the material, if there is no case made out, where is the question of sanction,” the bench asked.
“If there is a case, the question of sanction will come. If there is no case at all, then where is the question of sanction,” the top court said.
Ayyubi said that because of the denial of sanction to prosecute, a closure report has been filed.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Uttar Pradesh, said nothing remains in the case.
He said the CD was referred to the CFSL and it was found to have been tampered with.
Rohatgi said the issue referred to by the petitioner was dealt with by the high court.
“The issue which you are raising is academic…. If there is no criminal proceeding, where is the question of sanction,” the bench told the petitioner’s counsel.
Rohatgi said the petitioner had given a CD in 2008 which was broken and then after five years, he gave another CD of the alleged hate speech which was found to have been tampered with.
“You cannot go on beating a dead horse now after 15 years just because the man happens to be CM today,” he said, adding that the court should reject the petition with cost.
An FIR was lodged at a police station in Gorakhpur against Yogi Adityanath, then a member of Parliament, and several others on alleged charges of promoting enmity between two groups.
It was alleged that several incidents of violence were reported in Gorakhpur on that day after an alleged hate speech by Adityanath.

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