A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar granted four weeks to the Centre and the police to file their replies to the PIL seeking lodging of FIRs against three BJP leaders -- Kapil Mishra, Anurag Thakur and Parvesh Verma — for allegedly making hate speeches.
The counsel for the Delhi Police, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, told the court that they considered the matter, and had decided against filing an FIR at this moment against the BJP leaders in question.
"I have avoided making statements which are not conducive. Authorities have examined all audio-video material. We have decided to defer the registration of FIR,” Mehta said, according to Bar and Bench.
The High Court had on Wednesday, in a bench by Justices Muralidhar and Talwant Singh, expressed "anguish" over the Delhi Police's failure to register FIRs against three BJP leaders over their alleged hate speeches in connection with the Citizenship Amendment Act-related violence. It observed that the city had seen enough violence and it should not witness another 1984 anti-Sikh riots-like incident.
The bench had also questioned why the police could register FIRs in connection with incidents of violence, including arson, looting, stone pelting, but could not show alacrity regarding the allegations against the three BJP leaders.
The Delhi High Court Thursday allowed impleadment of the Centre in the PIL seeking lodging of FIRs and arrests in northeast Delhi where communal violence has erupted over the amended citizenship law. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the bench that as the Centre is responsible for maintaining law and order in Delhi, it be made a party in the matter, which was allowed by the court.
He informed the bench that 48 FIRs have been lodged in relation to the violence and said there be no judicial intervention till normalcy is restored in the national capital. Mehta said the FIRs have been lodged in relation to arson, looting and the deaths in the communal violence.
The death toll in the communal violence reached 34 on Thursday, with around 200 people injured.
With PTI inputs