The contentious paragraph against senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in an affidavit filed before Supreme Court by Centre seeking his prosecution for hate speech has been dropped.
The Government filed a third affidavit in Court deleting the specific para 11 from its original affidavit and said, “Charges levelled against the petitioner (Swamy) will be decided by the Court concerned and that deponent is not expressing any opinion thereon. The contents of para 11 of the counter affidavit may therefore be permitted to be deleted.” The affidavit was filed by laltiana Chhangte, Under Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The affidavit was filed in a case in which Swamy has challenged the constitutional validity of provisions of Indian Penal Code dealing with hate speech. The paragraph sought to be deleted had referred to a book by Swamy and said that his writings incited enmity and hatred between Hindus and Muslims and the said text would fall for prosecution under Section 153A of IPC dealing with hate speech.