"A Supreme Court bench of Justices K.M. Joseph and B.V. Nagarathna had harsh words to say on the role of the state in taking action against incidents of hate speech. The bench was hearing a petition asking for contempt of court action against the Maharashtra government over their alleged failure to act against hate speeches during rallies. The petitions alleged that the state government was ignoring the Supreme Court’s own directions when dealing with processions of the Sakal Hindu Samaj. The Supreme Court bench had also asked authorities to take relevant action against proponents of hate speech without waiting for a complaint to be filed.
The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, repeated its concerns over failure of authorities to take prompt action against instances of hate speech. “State is impotent, state is powerless; it does not act in time. Why do we have a State at all if it is remaining silent?” in very stringent words Justice KM Joseph aired his anguish during the hearing. Yesterday, Advocate, Mr. Nizam Pasha, appearing for the petitioner, had apprised the Court that the contempt petition has been filed based on a news article published in the the Indian Express, which mentioned that 50 rallies spurring hate has taken place in Maharashtra in the last 4 months.

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