BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has moved the Supreme Court challenging certain provisions in the IPC relating to hate speech and seeking a declaration that they are unconstitutional as they violated freedom of speech and expression. A vacation of bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and U.U. Lalit directed the matter to be listed before another bench as Justice Lalit recused from hearing the writ petition.
In his petition, Mr Swami said during a speech in Assam in March, he had said"Islam permits one to demolish a mosque for purposes like road building, apartment construction etc. or simply to reconstruct it elsewhere. On March 15, the petitioner made a speech to a group of intellectuals at Kaziranga University, wherein among other concerns, he stated simply that Islam permits such demolition and indeed such demolition do take place in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan."
He said for making this speech FIRs had been filed against him and the court had issued summons for his appearance. Hence the urgency for filing this writ petition challenging the vires of Sections 153, 153A, 153B, 295A, 298 and 505 of the Indian Penal Code, all of which deal with the offences popularly labelled as"hate speech".