HC refuses to stay ‘hate speech’ case against Delhi Minister Kapil Mishra

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday declined to stay trial court proceedings against Delhi Law Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kapil Mishra for allegedly posting “communally polarising” messages on social media ahead of the 2020 Delhi Assembly election.

Justice Ravinder Dudeja issued notice to Delhi Police on the Karawal Nagar MLA’s plea challenging a sessions court order dismissing his petition against a summons by a magisterial court in the case.

“There is no need to stay the trial court proceedings. The trial court is at liberty to proceed further with the matter,” Justice Dudeja said. The court granted four weeks to the police to file a response and posted the next hearing for May 19.

‘Objectionable statements’

The matter pertains to a show-cause notice by the Election Commission of India to Mr. Mishra for his “objectionable statements” on X (then Twitter), such as “February 8th [the date of polling] will be India vs. Pakistan in Delhi”. An FIR was subsequently registered against him under Section 125 of the Representation of the People (RP) Act (promoting enmity between classes of citizens), following which he was summoned by a magisterial court.

Earlier this month, a sessions court dismissed his plea against the summons and expressed “complete agreement” with the magisterial court order.

Defence arguments

During the hearing on Tuesday, senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for Mr. Mishra, argued that Section 125 of the RP Act was a non-cognisable offence and that the FIR could not be registered without following the procedure under Section 155(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Mr. Jethmalani said there was no reference to any communities or groups in Mr. Mishra’s tweets, which is a prerequisite under Section 125. He said the messages were neither intended to promote enmity between different classes nor was such a situation created during that period.

He argued that the tweets were posted to criticise the “anti-social and anti-national elements intending to spoil the atmosphere under the guise of the Anti-Citizenship Amendment Act movement”.

However, the police’s counsel opposed the plea saying the tweets were intended to promote hatred between religious communities. The counsel added that two courts had concurrent findings on the issue, and Mr. Mishra’s arguments could be taken up at the stage of framing of the charges.

‘Hatred for votes’

While dismissing his plea on March 7, special judge Jitendra Singh had observed, “The word ‘Pakistan’ is very skilfully weaved in his alleged statements to spew hatred, careless to communal polarisation that may ensue in the election campaign, only to garner votes.”

“The implicit reference underlying the particular ‘country’ in the alleged statement is an unmistaken innuendo to persons of a particular ‘religious community’, apparent to generate enmity amongst religious communities. This can be effortlessly understood even by a layman, let alone by a reasonable man,” he stated.

Published - March 19, 2025 01:39 am IST