The Delhi High Court on Monday issued notice, seeking stand of several political leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (Congress), Anurag Thakur (BJP), Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and others, on pleas to make them parties to proceedings seeking FIR and investigation against them for allegedly delivering hate speeches leading to the February 2020 riots amidst protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
A bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anoop Kumar Mendiratta, dealing with a batch of petitions concerning the 2020 riots in north-east Delhi, issued notice to all proposed respondents — persons against whom action is sought in two petitions. One impleadment is filed by petitioner Shaikh Mujtaba Farooq who has sought FIR for hate speech against BJP leaders Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra, Parvesh Verma and Abhay Verma.
The other application is by petitioner Lawyers Voice which has sought the registration of hate speech FIRs against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as well as Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, Aam Aadmi Party MLA Amanatullah Khan, AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi, former AIMIM MLA Warris Pathan, Mehmood Pracha, Harsh Mander, Mufti Mohammad Ismail, Swara Bhasker, Umar Khalid, BG Kolse Patil — former Bombay High Court Judge and others.
“Before we implead, we will have to give them an opportunity. We can't implead (without hearing) if they oppose it,” the court said.