The Tripura Government has told the Supreme Court that “public spirited” citizens seeking an independent probe into the recent “communal riots” in the state have come with “unclean hands” and that under the garb of public interest, the forum of this court is being used for “oblique” purpose.
Pointing to the petitioner’s “silence” on a series of pre-poll and post-poll violence which took place in West Bengal, the Tripura government said the so-called public spirit of the petitioners did not move a few months back on a larger scale of communal violence and suddenly their public sprit aroused due to some instances in a small state like Tripura.
“It is pointed out that such a selective outrage of the petitioner is not presented before this court as a defence but to satisfy this court that under the garb of public interest, the August forum of this court is used for apparently oblique purposes,” an affidavit filed by the state government said.
“It is not a question of one petition or the other but the majesty and sanctity of the proceedings before the highest court of the country. No individual or group of individuals professionally functioning as public spirited persons/groups can selectively invoke the extraordinary jurisdiction of the court to achieve some apparent but undisclosed motive. The selective rousing of public interest itself justifies dismissal of the petition with exemplary cost,” the affidavit stated.
The affidavit was filed in response to a PIL filed by advocate Ethesham Hashmi seeking an independent probe into the recent “communal riots” in Tripura and the alleged complicity and inaction of the state police in it.
The Tripura Government further said that the petition is based on basis of a “private/sponsored” ‘report’ titled “Humanity under Attack in Tripura #Muslim Lives Matter” and is not maintainable. “A genuine and bonafide public spirited citizen would not be selective in his public interest and would not be choosy about rushing before the court with regard to one state and keeping quiet with regard to the other,” Tripura said.
The present case is clearly a case of selective outrage under the pretence of public interest and to achieve some undisclosed agenda, it alleged.
The north-eastern state recently witnessed incidents of arson, looting and violence after reports emerged from Bangladesh that Hindu minorities there had been attacked during Durga Puja on allegations of blasphemy.