The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: Retired civil servants are among petitioners who have moved Supreme Court with a contempt petition against the Uttar Pradesh government for not taking steps to stop a congregation at Ghaziabad led by militant Hindutva leader Yati Narsinghanand, who has called for violence against Muslims several times before.
The Ghaziabad Dharam Sansad is to start on December 17 and go on till December 21. Today, December 16, advocate Prashant Bhushan orally mentioned the matter before Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna for urgent listing. The CJI asked Bhushan to file an urgency application, following which Bhushan filed one.
Senior Bureaucrats and activists who have moved court include retired IAS officer Aruna Roy, retired IFS officers Ashok Kumar Sharma, Deb Mukarji and Navrekha Sharma, former planning commission member Syeda Hameed, and social researcher Vijayan M.J.
The petitioners said that the Ghaziabad district administration and the Uttar Pradesh police had been wilfully and deliberately in contempt of the orders of the Supreme Court which has directed all competent authorities to take suo motu action against individuals or groups who indulge in communal activities and hate speeches.
The website and the advertisements for this Sansad, the petitioners say, include several communal statements against the followers of Islam and incite violence against Muslims.
‘Dharam Sansad’ events earlier, at various places across north India, have been in the news for their openly communal themes. In 2021, a Dharam Sansad in Haridwar had called for the genocide of Muslims.
Over 65 organisations and 190 civil society activists from 22 states had, days ago, written an open letter to the President of India, calling for the cancellation of this Dharam Sansad.
In 2022, Narsinghanand, who is also priest of Ghaziabad’s Dasna Devi temple, had said that he would “organise at any cost,” after the Uttar Pradesh police issued a notice instructing him not to organise a ‘dharam sansad’.
Narsinghanand is known for extremely communal, sexist and violent statements. He has been arrested, but given bail as well, over earlier comments.