P&H High Court denies relief to lawyer for using casteist slur
The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently said that the right to free speech does not extend to the use of expressions such as ‘casteist goons’ as they impute criminality, moral depravity, and collective blame to an entire caste or social group rather than merely criticising errant individuals.
Justice Vinod S Bhardwaj made the observation while rejecting a plea seeking the quashing of a criminal case against an activist-lawyer booked by the police for his public comments about a murder case.
“When such expressions are publicly articulated and normalised, particularly in charged or emotive settings, they carry the real and imminent risk of legitimising prejudice, inciting hostility and disturbing public tranquillity. Freedom of speech cannot be stretched to shield expressions that promote or are likely to promote alienation, public disorder or violence or that challenge the unity and integrity of the nation. Unchecked divisive speech ultimately curtail the liberties of law-abiding citizens,” the Court said.
The accused lawyer, Rajat Kalsan, was booked for allegedly promoting enmity between different groups, intentionally insulting to provoke a breach of peace and making statements conducive to public mischief. The criminal case against Kalsan was registered in July following a complaint alleging that, during a speech at a public meeting in Hisar, he referred to some villagers as ‘casteist goons’ for allegedly trying to falsely implicate a Scheduled Caste (SC) woman and others in a murder case.
It was alleged that Kalsan claimed that the deceased woman, belonging to a particular caste, had been murdered by her own family members over a property dispute in 2024. He further alleged that the police, at the instance of villagers, falsely implicated an SC woman and others in the case.
