The Supreme Court on Monday asked petitioners, who approached it seeking action against Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for offenses related to hate speech, to approach the Gauhati High Court, legal news website LiveLaw said.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul Pancholi expressed reluctance to invoke Article 32 of the Constitutionand said that the petitioners should first approach the jurisdictional High Courts, the news website said.
Article 32 of the Indian Constitution, deemed the “heart and soul” by BR. Ambedkar, guarantees the fundamental right to move the Supreme Court directly for the enforcement of fundamental rights. It empowers the Supreme Court to issue writs—Habeas CorpusMandamus, to name a few—to protect rights from violation.
The Chief Justice strongly disapproved of the trend of parties directly approaching the Supreme Court, bypassing the High Courts. While disposing of the matters, the bench requested the Chief Justice of the High Court to grant an expeditious hearing to the petitioners.
“All these issues can be effectively adjudicated by the jurisdictional High Court. We see no reason to entertain this here, and thus we relegate the petitioners to the jurisdictional High Court. We request the High Court Chief Justice to expedite hearing,” the bench observed in the order.
CJI Surya Kant also appealed to the political parties to fight elections based on “mutual respect and self-restraint.
Advocate Nizam Pasha, for petitioners, submitted that the High Court may have to constitute an SIT with officers outside Assam. CJI said that the High Court can also pass such an order and recalled that, as a High Court Judge, he had issued a similar direction. “Go through the channel, trust the High Court, approach them,” CJI said.
The bench was dealing with 3 petitions – two filed by Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Annie Raja, a leader of the Communist Party of India (CPI), and a third filed by 4 Assamese individuals.
A video was posted on ‘X’ by the official handle of the BJP, which was later removed, showing the Assam CM shooting persons who appeared to belong to the Muslim community.
Go through the channel, trust the High Court, approach them.
While disposing of the matters, the bench requested the Chief Justice of the High Court to grant an expeditious hearing to the petitioners.
“All these issues can be effectively adjudicated by the jurisdictional High Court. We see no reason to entertain this here, and thus we relegate the petitioners to the jurisdictional High Court. We request the High Court Chief Justice to expeditious hearing,” the bench observed in the order.
(With inputs from LiveLaw)
