Used 'Pakistan' Word To Spew Hatred: Court Rejects Delhi Minister Kapil Mishra's Plea Against Summons In 2020 FIR For Communal Tweets

A Delhi Court has dismissed a plea moved by BJP Minister Kapil Mishra challenging a magisterial order summoning him in an FIR filed in 2020 over his tweets that the AAP and Congress had created a “mini Pakistan” at Shaheen Bagh and that the then Assembly polls would be a contest between “India and Pakistan”.

“The word 'Pakistan' is very skillfully weaved by the revisionist in his alleged statements to spew hatred, careless to communal polarisation that may ensue in the election compaign, only to garner votes,” special judge Jitendra Singh of Rouse Avenue Courts said on Friday.

The judge said there has been a trend in India to resort to communally charged speeches to garner votes during elections.

“This is the outcome of politics of divisiveness and politics of exclusion which is a threat to democratic and plural fabric of the country. Divide and rule policy of the colonialist are sadly still in practice in India,” it said.

The FIR was registered against Mishra after a letter was received from the office of Returning Officer alleging that he violated the Model Code of Conduct and Representation of People Act. It was alleged that Mishra made the tweets with the object to promote enemity between classes in connection with Delhi Legislative Assembly Elections, 2020.

In June last year, a magisterial court passed the summoning order against Mishra which was upheld by the special judge.

“The Election Commission is under a constitutional obligation to prevent the candidates from indulging in vitriolic vituperation with impunity, vitiating and contaminating the atmosphere for free and fair election. Therefore, this court is in complete agreement with the Ld. Trial Court that the complaint filed by the Returning Officer, notification of the Election Commission and other documents were sufficient to take cognizance of the offence punishable u/s 125 of the RP Act. Accordingly, the instant revision petition is dismissed,” the Court said.

It rejected Mishra's argument that his statement nowhere referred to any caste, community, religion, race and language but had referred to a country which was not prohibited under Section 125 of RP Act.

“This submission is simply preposterous and outrightly untenable, the implicit reference underlying the particular 'country' in the alleged statement is an unmistaken innuendo to persons of a particular 'religious community', apparent to generate enmity amongst religious communities. This can be effortlessly understood even by a layman, let alone by a reasonable man,” the Court said.

It added that Mishra's statements were a brazen attempt to promote enmity on the grounds of religion by way of indirectly referring to a 'country' which “unfortunately in common parlance” is often used to denote the members of a particular religion.

“Free and fair elections are the very foundations of any vibrant democracy. India is a festival of diversity in religions, castes, cultures, languages and ethnicities. Though religious diversities are embraced but there also exist fragile atmosphere where the religious passion can be easily ignited,” the judge said.

Title: Kapil Mishra v. State of NCT of Delhi

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