The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the contempt petition filed by activist Tushar Gandhi against the Delhi Police for its alleged inaction in the hate speech case related to the Hindu Yuva Vahini event, which was organised in Delhi in December 2021.

The Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice J.B. Pardiwala disposed of the plea on the grounds that once the charge sheet was filed, the role of the Apex Court ended.

The Hindu Yuva Vahini event was organised under the leadership of Sudarshan News TV editor Suresh Chavhanke.

The contempt petition had argued that Delhi Police had violated the guidelines set out in Tehseen Poonawalla case. As per the said judgement, there is a requirement for the Police to file FIR and charge sheet in a timely manner against calls for mob violence.

Additional Solicitor General (ASG) K.M. Nataraj, appearing for Delhi Police today, apprised the Apex Court that the probe had been completed in the matter and the charge sheet has been submitted before the Metropolitan Magistrate court at Saket. 

The Bench then noted that it would not be appropriate to pursue contempt cases, since the same should be taken up by the Magistrate under CrPC.

The Delhi Police had apprised the Apex Court that investigation in the hate speech case over the Hindu Yuva Vahini event organised under the leadership of Sudarshan News TV editor Suresh Chavhanke in Delhi in December 2021 had reached an advanced stage.

Earlier, the Delhi Police had apprised the top court of the country on January 30 that it would soon file its final report in the hate speech case.  

Representing the petitioner, Advocate Shadan Farasat said that he had no objection to the adjournment, but that the Delhi Police should clarify certain additional aspects. 

Farasat contended that as per the Delhi Police affidavit, they had fixed March 17 for collecting the voice sample of the accused. The same should be done expeditiously and should not take so long.

The Counsel further sought an affidavit regarding preventive steps in order to avoid repetition of such incidents in future.

The ASG said that he would take instructions on the same.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta requested the Apex Court to tag the hate speech case against Sudarshan TV’s UPSC Jihad programme with the ongoing matter, stating that the matter was connected to the present case.

Advocate Farasat opposed the tagging, stating that the contempt petition was regarding a different incident related to the UPSC ‘jihad’ programme and was tagged with a batch of petitions listed before the Bench led by Justice K.M. Joseph.

The court then said that it would look into the matter. 

In November 2020, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court stating that the UPSC Jihad programme aired by Sudarshan TV was ‘not’ in good taste and had a likelihood to ‘promote’ communal attitudes.

It further cautioned the channel owned by Suresh Chavhanke to remain ‘careful’ in future.

The top court of the country had pulled up the Delhi Police on January 13 over slow progress in the investigation in the case. It further came down heavily on Delhi Police for taking five months to register an FIR and not making any arrests in the case. 

(Case title: Tushar Gandhi vs Rakesh Asthana and Anr)

New Delhi (IL News Service): The Supreme Court has held that the notification issued by the Centre to increase import duty on goods from Pakistan by 200 per cent in the wake of the Pulwama attack last year could not be applied retrospectively.

The three-judge bench of Justices D. Y. Chandrachud, Indu Malhotra and K. M. Joseph passed this order while dismissing the appeal by the Centre against a Punjab and Haryana High Court judgment holding that it cannot levy enhanced custom duty from importers who had already presented “bills of entry for home consumption before the enhanced rate was notified” in e-Gazette.

40 CRPF men were killed in a terror attack in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir on February 14 last year. Two days after the attack, the Centre issued a notification under Section 8A of the Customs Tariff Act 1975, which subjected all goods originating from Pakistan to 200 per cent enhanced customs duty.

The government’s notification was uploaded on the e-Gazette at around 8.46 pm on February 16, 2019 and the customs authorities at the land customs station at Attari in Punjab sought to enforce the enhanced rate of duty on importers who had already presented bills of entry for home consumption before the enhanced rate was notified in the e-Gazette.

This action was challenged before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which ruled in favour of the petitioners. The Centre had appealed this decision in the apex court.

Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, on behalf of the Centre, argued  that since the notification was issued on February 16, 2019, the Court must, treat it as being in existence with effect from midnight  February 16.

Justice Chandrachud, who wrote the 82-page judgment, said:

The possibility of re-assessment of the duty was also ruled out, with the Court holding:

“The power of re-assessment under Section 17(4) could not have been exercised since this is not a case where there was an incorrect self-assessment of duty. The duty was correctly assessed at the time of self-assessment in terms of the duty which was in force on that date and at the time. The subsequent publication of the notification bearing 5/2019 did not furnish a valid basis for re-assessment.”

Justice Joseph, who wrote a separate and concurring 94-page judgment in the case, observed:

The apex court dismissed the appeals against the High Court‘s order, as it did not find any merit in the appeals.

Read the Judgment here;

-India Legal Bureau