'Hate Speech Against Brahmins': What SC Said While Dismissing Plea

New Delhi: The Supreme Court, on March 20, said efforts to curb hate speech must extend across communities and cannot be confined to protecting any one group, while hearing a petition seeking action against alleged hate speech targeting Brahmins.

A bench of Justices B.V. Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan questioned the premise of the plea, with Justice Nagarathna observing that the issue should not be framed around safeguarding a single community. “Why should a particular community come up and say ‘protect my community against hate speech’? Rather, we should say ‘no one should indulge in hate speech’,” she said.

The court reiterated its opposition to hate speech in all forms, irrespective of the target. “We do not want hate speech against any community. That would depend on the level of education, intellectual development, tolerance and patience in the society. Once everyone follows fraternity, then automatically there would be no hate speech,” Justice Nagarathna said, The Hindu reported.

The petition was filed by Mahalingam Balaji, who appeared in person and sought recognition of what he termed “Brahmophobia” as caste based discrimination warranting penal action. He submitted that the plea followed years of research into what he described as the selective and inconsistent application of hate speech jurisprudence.

The plea sought directions to the Union government and states to recognise hate speech against Brahmins as caste based discrimination and take legal action, along with a probe into alleged campaigns promoting such content. It also called for the constitution of a commission to examine historical incidents and measures for rehabilitation, and for disqualification of public officials found engaging in caste based hate speech.

During the hearing, the bench questioned the need to seek protection for a specific community alone and said instances of alleged hate speech could be raised before appropriate forums. The court also indicated it was not concerned with criticism of the judiciary on social media, after the petitioner brought it up, Deccan Chronicle reported.

The petitioner later sought permission to withdraw the plea, which the court allowed.

Justice Bhuyan, in a Supreme Court Bar Association conference in Bengaluru over the weekend, said that incarceration of citizens for dissent, and continuing atrocities against Dalits “cannot be a model of Viksit Bharat”.

“In Viksit Bharat, there should be more space for dissent and debate. Dissent cannot be criminalised,” he said, warning against the growing tendency to invoke criminal law in response to protests, student movements, and even social media expression, according to a report on Hindustan Times.

“In Viksit Bharat, we cannot have parents saying their children will not eat food prepared by Dalits. We cannot have Dalit men being made to stand in corridors and have other men urinate on them. Respect for the individual must be protected,” he said.

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