Delhi riots: HC notice on impleadment pleas on alleged hate speeches

New Delhi, Feb 28 The Delhi High Court on Monday issued notice on pleas seeking impleadment of various politic and others on allegations of hate speeches linked to the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests during 2020 Delhi riots.

Hearing the impleadment applications filed by petitioners Shaikh Mujtaba and Lawyers Voice, a division bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anoop Kumar Mendiratta sought responses of the proposed respondents to ascertain whether they should be added or not.

The bench, during the hearing, observed that they cannot be impleaded if there is opposition.

In the plea, petitioner Mujtaba sought impleadment of Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Kapil Mishra, Anurag Thakur, Parvesh Verma, and Abhay Verma as respondents while Lawyers Voice sought impleadment of as many as 20 people.

These 20 include Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Manish Sisodia, Amanatullah Khan, Waris Pathan, Akbaruddin Owaisi, Mehmood Pracha, Harsh Mander, Mufti Mohd. Ismail, Swara Bhaskar, Umar Khalid, Maulana Habib ur Rehman, Mohd Dilwar, Maulana Shreyar Raza, Maulana Hamood Raza, Maulana Taukir, Faizul Hassan, Tauqeer Raza Khan, and B.G. Kolse Patil.

After the submissions, the bench slated the matter to March 22 for further hearing in the matter.

Recently, the court had granted liberty to Mujtaba and Lawyers Voice to implead proper and necessary parties in their pleas on the specific allegations of hate speeches by various politic.