Supreme Court action on hate speech is required

The Court had earlier in April warned police chiefs of all states and Union Territories of the consequences of filing suo motu (on their own) charges against hate speech uttered by individuals of any religion, underlining the need to maintain the secular nature of the nation.The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that measures against hate speech of any kind must be taken. The court also decided to hear a number of petitions in February that sought to establish a system to prohibit hate speech.A bench led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna responded to pleas from people and organisations identifying multiple instances of hate speech by saying, “We cannot have a pan-India monitoring of the problem of hate speeches.”