NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to take up on April 17 a plea by 'Hindu front for Justice', a Trust registered at Lucknow, for a direction states of West Bengal, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Telangana to assess the loss of properties and injuries suffered by people during the violence witnessed during Ram Navami procession and pay them adequate compensation.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud allowed a plea for mentioning made by advocate Hari Shankar Jain and others and posted the matter for hearing on April 17.
The application filed in a pending petition of Qurban Ali with regard to hate speech sought a direction to the state governments to comply with the guidelines issued in case of Tehseen Poonawalla vs Union of India (2018) with regard to mob lynching and violence.
"It is unfortunate that in independent India Hindus are not being allowed to take our religious processions peacefully and to observe their customary rites and rituals and same is being disturbed by a group of Muslims and the respective state governments have failed to take appropriate steps to prevent such mis-happenings," it said.
The application filed through advocates Vishnu Shankar Jain and Hari Shankar Jain also sought a direction to the concerned state governments to recover the loss caused to the persons committed in connection with Ram Navami festival from miscreants after due verification and direct the state governments to take preventive measures so that in future the incident of attacks or disturbing the Shobha Yatra on Ram Navami festival and other festivals may not take place.
The trust through its President Ranjana Agnihotri alleged the celebration of Ram Navami festival is not liked by a section of Muslim community and every year in different parts of the country they create ruckus and commit violent acts to disturb the celebration. "The religious procession of Hindus is attacked in a pre-planned manner as a section of Muslims have hatred against Hindu festivals due to which such hate crimes are committed," it said.
On the occasion of Ram Navami, violence at large scale has been committed by the members of Muslim Community in a pre-planned manner in different parts of the country, namely, at Howrah, Uttar Dinajpur (West Bengal), Sasaram and Nalanda (Bihar), Hyderabad (Telangana), Aurangabad (Maharashtra), Vadodara (Gujarat), Jamshedpur (Jharkhand). The Muslim mob attacked, committed arsons, damaged the vehicles, pelted stones, assaulted Hindu devotees taking out the religious processions i.e. Shobha Yatra of Lord Ram.
Giving details of the violent incidents, the applicant also said it is unfortunate that Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal talked about Muslim dominated areas and asked the Hindus not to takeout processions through such areas.
"This concept is against the very theme of the Constitution. There is no area can be considered as Muslim dominated area. Every citizen of the country has the right to take out religious procession through public roads in a peaceful manner and such procession cannot be prevented because of the fact that the members of other community are in a dominant position in such areas," it said.
It also pleaded the state governments should be directed to allow Hindu devotees to take out processions in peaceful manner from public road and such request should not be rejected only on the ground that area in question is a Muslim dominated area.
The plea also stated the state governments must provide full protection to the processions taken out on Ram Navami Day or other religious processions by Hindus.
It also said the Chief Secretaries of the concerned state governments should be directed to submit report regarding the causes which led to mob attacks and violence committed on Shri Ram Shobha Yatra on March 30.03.2023 and register FIR into the incidents and initiate criminal proceedings against the culprits.
