The hate speech hearing in Supreme Court remained stormy for the second day running on Wednesday with intense exchanges between Justice K M Joseph and Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta. The Centre’s top law officer beseeched for a direction to petitioner Shaheen Abdulla through his lawyer Nizam Pasha not to target the Hindu community alone, but bring to fore hate speeches by Muslims too for a blanket clamp down on “hate speeches across religion”.

"Why petitioner Shaheen Abdullah from Kerala is blind to hate speeches close to his home? Why is he seeking to target one community in one particular state? If he is genuinely public-spirited, he must bring on record hate speeches across religions, the SG asked.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta cited three cases from different parts of the country to "expose the petitioner's bias":

SG Mehta vehemently pleaded before Justice K M Joseph, heading the bench hearing a batch of petitions seeking action against hate speech, to watch a video clip of a PFI rally in Kerala in which a child carried on a man's shoulders raised slogans containing death threats to Hindus and Christians. He repeatedly requested the Bench to issue a notice to the Kerala government to ascertain what action had been taken. However, Justice Joseph abruptly ended the hearing and directed that the next case be called.

SG Mehta strongly reacted when Justice Joseph, referring to the Kerala video clip said “we know that” but “every action has an equal reaction.” “Hate speech is a vicious cycle and people will react. Most of what we see is a reaction to action,” Justice Josephs had remarked.

The SG said that, "If Lordships “know that”, then the court should have taken suo moto cognisance of this incident along with the present contempt petitions.

(With inputs from agencies)