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A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Delhi High Court apprehending violence during Eid in the Uttam Nagar area. Petitioner, in View of alleged threats, has sought a direction to the Delhi Police and District Administration to prevent violence. In Uttam Nagar Violence took place on Holi, and a youth was beaten to death by persons of a particular community.
The matter was mentioned by Senior Advocate Nitya Ramakrishnan for the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) before the bench of the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, seeking urgent listing. The present PIL has been filed through Advocate M Huzaifa and Shahrukh Alam for APCR. The instant petition is filed to prevent communal violence and frenzy being created in Uttamnagar, Dwarka, Delhi, affecting the fraternity. The petitioner is seeking urgent directions to the Respondent authorities to discharge their statutory and constitutional obligations in preventing imminent communal violence, hate speech, and targeted discrimination against a particular community. The petition is filed in the backdrop of an incident of 04.03.2026, wherein oneTarun, aged about 26 years, was allegedly beaten to death following a neighbourhood altercation between two families belonging to different religious communities in Uttam Nagar. While the incident was local in nature, it has thereafterbeen widely communalised through coordinated dissemination of inflammatorycontent, mobilisation of crowds, and organisation of protests and public gatherings, the plea said. It is submitted that after the said incident, multiple rallies and assemblies,including "Akrosh Sabhas", were organised in various parts of Delhi, including Uttam Nagar, wherein highly provocative and inflammatory speeches were delivered openly, inciting violence against members of the Muslim community. Slogans advocating extrajudicial killings, economic boycott, and social exclusionhave been raised, creating an atmosphere of fear, hostility, and imminent threat tolife and property, the plea stated. Many of these hate speeches are specifically targeting the festival of Eid, which is to be celebrated on 20 or 21 March 2026, and explicitly advocatingthat Muslims in Uttam Nagar will be prevented from celebrating the Eid festival, it added. It is further submitted that such hate speech and incitement have not remainedconfined to rhetoric but have manifested in acts of violence, vandalism, arson, mobassaults, and forced economic shutdowns. Several Muslim-owned shops in the locality have remained closed due to fear of violence, and reports indicate that families have been compelled to temporarily leave their homes due to apprehension of targeted violence. It is also said that despite the existence of binding directions issued by the Hon'ble Supreme Court mandating that State authorities must take suo motu action against hate speech and register FIRs without awaiting formal complaints, the Respondent authorities have failed to take prompt and effective action. The Petitioner submitted that numerous instances of hate speech, widely available inthe public domain, prima facie disclose the commission of cognizable offences underSections 196, 197, 299, 351, 352 and 353 of the BNS, as well as relevant provisions of the UAPA. However, no adequate or proportionate legal action has been taken against the perpetrators, thereby emboldening further unlawful activities, the plea said. It sought direction from the authorities to ensure the enforcement of the rule of law, protection of fundamental rights, and prevention of communal violence. "The 'ultimatum' given in several hate speeches for extrajudicial police encounter of the accused persons in the Tarun murder case, and full punitive demolitions of their houses, has further led to clarion calls of not allowing Eid celebrations in Uttam Nagar and making the Muslims cry like that of Tarun's family," the plea said. "It is also submitted that this has created a very high chance of riots or other disturbances being caused on the day of Eid, especially with the circulation of online posters and messages calling for the celebration of Holi in Uttam Nagar on the day of Eid. It is likely that further hateful and provocative speeches will be made targeting the "particular community", since it is in continuation of the already criminal narrative in the public sphere," the plea added. Petitioner has arrayed the Delhi Government, Central Government, Delhi police and District Administration as respondents in the petition. (ANI)
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