[Dharam Sansad] Jitendra Tyagi's 'Hate' Speech Intended To Wage War, Abused Prophet Muhammad: UK HC Denies Bail

Stressing that Hate Speech has far-reaching consequences, the bench of Justice Ravindra Maithani, refrained from reproducing his speech delivered at Dharam Sansad, organized between December 17-19, 2021, however, it did say that huge derogatory remarks were against a particular religion and against Prophet.

"The Prophet has been abused; it intends to wound the religious feelings of persons belonging to a particular religion; it intends to wage war. It promotes enmity. It is a hate speech," the Court said.

The Court also said that the right to freedom, as granted under the Constitution is not an absolute right and that it has limitations. The right to freedom of speech and expression is subject to the restriction as given under Article 19(2) of the Constitution.

In view of this, having considered the repeated nature of allegations; the kind of utterances which the Tyagi allegedly made, published video message and its possible impact on the society, the Court didn't find it to be a fit case for bail.

Accordingly, the bail application was rejected.

It may be noted that for his alleged hate speech, Tyagi has been booked under Sections 153A [Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony], 298 [Uttering, words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person] of Indian Penal Code, 1860 by Uttarakhand Police.

In January 2022, a local court in Haridwar had denied bail to hate speech accused Jitendra Tyagi booked for his alleged insulting remarks on Prophet Mohammad which were made during the 'Dharam Sansad' which was held in Haridwar last month.

Read more about the Haridwar Court's order here: Haridwar Dharam Sansad: Local Court Denies Bail To Jitendra Tyagi Aka Wasim Rizvi For Remarks On Prophet Muhammad

Case title – Jitendra Narayan Tyagi @ Vasim Rizvi v. State of Uttarakhand

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Utt) 10

Click here To Read/Download Order