The Supreme Court on Monday asked the petitioners who had approached it seeking a case against Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for hate speech offenses to approach the Gauhati High Court, legal news website. LiveLaw he said.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul Pancholi expressed reluctance to appeal Article 32 of the Constitutionand said the petitioners should first approach the relevant high courts, the news website reported.
Article 32 of the Constitution of India, which BR considers to be the “heart and soul”. Ambedkar, guarantees the fundamental right to approach the Supreme Court directly for enforcement of fundamental rights. Empowers the Supreme Court to issue writs –You have a bodyMandamus to name a few – to protect rights from infringement.
The Chief Justice strongly disagreed with the trend of parties directly approaching the Supreme Court and bypassing the High Courts. When dealing with cases, the court asked the president of the high court for an expedited hearing of the petitioners.
“All these questions can be effectively decided by the relevant high court. We see no reason to deal with this here, and therefore we refer the petitioner to the relevant high court. We ask the president of the high court for an expedited hearing,” the senate noted in the resolution.
CJI Surya Kant he also appealed to political parties to fight elections based on “mutual respect and self-control.
Advocate Nizam Pasha, for the petitioners, said the Supreme Court may have to constitute an SIT with officers from outside Assam. The CJI said the high court can also issue such an order and recalled that he had issued a similar direction as a high court judge. “Go through the channel, trust the High Court, approach them,” the CJI said.
The bench heard 3 petitions – two filed by Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Annie Raja and the third filed by 4 Assamese individuals.
A video was posted on the BJP’s official ‘X’ handle, which was later removed, showing the Assam CM shooting people who appeared to belong to the Muslim community.
Go through the channel, trust the High Court, approach them.
When dealing with cases, the court asked the president of the high court for an expedited hearing of the petitioners.
“All these questions can effectively be decided by the appropriate High Court. We see no reason to deal with it here and therefore remand the petitioners to the appropriate High Court. We request that Chief Justice of the High Court for expedited hearing,” the bench noted in the order.
(With input from LiveLaw)