Khaja Aijazuddin vs. The Cabinet Secretary Govt. Of India

S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

Writ Petition (Civil) No. 943/2021

ASHWINI KUMAR UPADHYAY Petitioner(s)

VERSUS

UNION OF INDIA & ORS. Respondent(s)

[only WP (C) 940/2022, CP 776/2023 in WP(C) 940/2022, IA No. 30382/2023 in WP (C) 24/2022 and C. P (C) D. NO. 11853 of 2023 are listed on 28.04.2023]

WITH

W.P.(C) No. 24/2022 (PIL-W) (IA No. 30382/2023 - INTERVENTION APPLICATION)

W.P.(C) No. 940/2022 (PIL-W) (IA No. 23156/2023 - APPROPRIATE ORDERS/DIRECTIONS and IA No. 6915/2023 - APPROPRIATE ORDERS/DIRECTIONS and IA No. 176938/2022 - APPROPRIATE ORDERS/DIRECTIONS and IA No. 60674/2023 - APPROPRIATE ORDERS/DIRECTIONS and IA No. 35185/2023 - APPROPRIATE ORDERS/DIRECTIONS and IA No. 30794/2023 – INTERVENTION/IMPLEADMENT)

CONMT.PET.(C) No. 776/2023 in W.P.(C) No. 940/2022 (PIL-W) (IA No. 63957/2023 - APPROPRIATE ORDERS/DIRECTIONS)

Diary No(s). 11853/2023 (PIL-W)

Date : 28-04-2023 These petitions were called on for hearing today.

CORAM :

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K.M. JOSEPH HON'BLE MRS. JUSTICE B.V. NAGARATHNA

For Petitioner(s)

Mr. Ashwani Kumar Dubey, AOR

• Mr. Nizam Pasha, Adv.
• Ms. Rashmi Singh, Adv.
• Ms. Sumita Hazarika, AOR

For Respondent(s)

	Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General
	Mr. K M Nataraj, A.S.G.
	Mr. Rajat Nair, Adv.
	Mr. Sanjay Kumar Tyagi, Adv.
	Mr. Kanu Agarwal, Adv.

Mr. Rajan Kumar Chourasia, Adv. Mr. Varun Chugh, Adv. Mr. Mayank Pandey, Adv. Mr. Amit Sharma, Adv. Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR Mr. Gurmeet Singh Makker, AOR Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General Mr. K.m.nataraj, A.S.G. Mr. Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, AOR Mr. Kanu Agrawal, Adv. Mr. Rajat Nair, Adv. Mr. Mayank Pandey, Adv. Mr. Sanjay Kr.tyagi, Adv. Mr. Varun Chugh, Adv. Dr. N. Visakamurthy, Adv. Mr. Abhishek Atrey, AOR Mr. Jatinder Kumar Sethi, D.A.G. Mr. Ashutosh Kumar Sharma, Adv. Ms. Ambika Atrey, Adv. Dr. Abhishek Atrey, Adv. Mr. Amit Sharma, AOR Mr. Dipesh Sinha, Adv. Ms. Pallavi Barua, Adv. Ms. Sakshi Upadhyaya, Adv. Ms. Aparna Singh, Adv. Mr. Lokesh Sinhal, Sr. A.A.G. Mr. Nikunj, Adv. Dr. Monika Gusain, AOR Mr. Sumeer Sodhi, AOR Ms. Tanya Verma, Adv. Mr. Vishal Meghwal, Adv. Ms. Yashika Bum, Adv. Mr. Milind Kumar, AOR Mr. Anirban Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Ashutosh Dubey, AOR Mr. Abhishek Chauhan, Adv. Ms. Rajshri Dubey, Adv. Mr. H.B. Dubey, Adv. Mr. Amit P. Shahi, Adv. Mr. Amit Kumar, Adv. Mr. Manish Dhingra, Adv. Mr. Gaganmeet Singh Sachdeva, Adv. Ms. Ramya Khanna, Adv.

Mr. Hari Shankar Jain, Adv. Mr. Vishnu Shankar Jain, AOR Ms. Mani Munjal, Adv. Mr. Parth Yadav, Adv. Mr. Vinay Rajput, Adv. Mr. Devendra Singh, AOR Mr. Mishra Saurabh, AOR Mr. Abhishek, AOR Mr. Barun Kumar Sinha, Adv. Mrs. Pratibha Sinha, Adv. Mr. Niraj Kumar, Adv. Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General Mr. S.v. Raju, A.S.G. Mr. Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Adv. Mr. Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, AOR Mr. Bharat Bagla, Adv. Mr. Sourav Singh, Adv. Ms. Garima Prashad, Sr. A.A.G. Ms. Ruchira Goel, AOR Mr. Satwik Misra, Adv. Mr. Adit Jayeshbhai Shah, Adv. Ms. Priyanka Swami, Adv. Mr. Hari Shankar Jain, Adv. Mr. Vishnu Shankar Jain, AOR Ms. Mani Munjal, Adv. Mr. Parth Yadav, Adv. Mr. Vinay Rajput, Adv. Mr. Gurmeet Singh Makker, AOR Mr. Kaleeswaram Raj, Adv. Ms. Thulasi K Raj, Adv. Mr. Mohammed Sadique T.A., AOR Mr. Anu K. Joy, Adv. Mr. Alim Anvar, Adv. Mr. Abhishek Atrey, AOR Mr. Jatinder Kumar Sethi, D.A.G. Mr. Ashutosh Kumar Sharma, Adv. Ms. Ambika Atrey, Adv. Dr. Abhishek Atrey, Adv. Mr. Vishal Prasad, AOR Ms. Ritika Sethi, Adv. Mr. Shadan Farasat, AOR Ms. Warisha Farasat, Adv. Mr. Shourya Dasgupta, Adv.

Mr. Aman Naqvi, Adv. Ms. Hrishika Jain, Adv. Ms. Natasha Maheshwari, Adv. Ms. Mreganka Kukreja, Adv. Mr. Nishe Rajen Shonker, AOR Mrs. Anu K Joy, Adv. Mr. Alim Anvar, Adv. Ms. Bansuri Swaraj, Adv. Ms. Ana Upadhyay, Adv. Mr. Chetanya Puri, Adv. Ms. Jyoti Taneja, Adv. Ms. Aastha Gupta, Adv. Mr. Himanshu Bidhuri, Adv. Ms. Seema Patnaha, Adv. Mr. Surender Kumar Gupta, AOR Ms. K. Enatoli Sema, AOR Ms. Limayinla Jamir, Adv. Mr. Amit Kumar Singh, Adv. Ms. Chubalemla Chang, Adv. Mr. Prang Newmai, Adv. Mr. Sanjay Parikh, Sr. Adv. Ms. Aparna Bhat, Adv. Ms. Srishti Agnihotri, AOR Ms. Karishma Maria, Adv. Ms. Sanjana Grace Thomas, Adv. Mr. Upendra Pratap Singh, AOR Ms. Snehal Uday Kanzarkar, Adv. Mr. Harsh Singh Rawat, Adv. Mr. Shailja Nanda Mishra, Adv. Ms. Aastha Gupta, Adv. Mr. Dushyant Pratap Singh, Adv. Mr. Abhimanyu Tewari, AOR Ms. Eliza Barr, Adv. Mr. Sumit Teterrwal, AOR Mr. Sunil Dalal, Sr. Adv. Mr. Shoumendu Mukherji, AOR Mr. Soumava Karmakar, Adv. Ms. Manisha Saroha, Adv. Mr. Nikhil Beniwal, Adv. Ms. Megha Sharma, Adv. Ms. Akanksha Gupta, Adv. Mr. Satya Ranjan Swain, Adv. Mr. Sahaj Garg, Adv.

Mr. Deepanshu Badiwal, Adv. Mr. Ashish Singh, Adv. Mr. Shovan Mishra, AOR Mr. Kirti Uppal, Sr. Adv. Mr. Piyush Beriwal, AOR Mr. Aman Jha, Adv. Mr. Amit Tiwari, Adv. Mr. Rishi Tutu, Adv. Ms. Priyanka Garg, Adv. Ms. Priya Mishra, Adv. Mr. Rudra Paliwal, Adv. Mr. Sanjay Pal, Adv. Mr. Shrey Sehrawat, Adv. Mr. Kushagra Kumar Kansal, Adv. Mr. Shekhar, Adv. Mr. Abhinav Goswami, Adv. Ms. Divya Srivastava, Adv. Mr. Mehmood Umar Faruqui, AOR Mr. Aaditya Vijay Kumar, Adv. Ms. Shreya Shree Singh, Adv. Mr. Chitranshul A. Sinha, AOR Ms. Radhika Chaturvedi, Adv. Mr. Hitesh Kumar Sharma, Adv. Mr. S. K. Rajora, Adv. Mr. Akhileshwar Jha, Adv. Mr. Amit Kumar Chawla, Adv. Mr. Ravish Kumar Goyal, Adv.

UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following O R D E R

All the intervention/impleadment applications allowed.

Learned counsel for the petitioner in W.P. (C)No. 940/2022 requests that the State and the Union Territories which were not made parties may also be impleaded and similar order which has been passed on 21.10.2022 may be passed. Petitioner has also placed before us an Interlocutory Application which it would appear has not yet been numbered. We direct that in writ petition, persons

shown as Additional Respondent Nos. 9 to 36 in I.A. (unnumbered) be added as additional respondents in the writ petition.

Respondent Nos. 9 to 36 shall ensure that immediately as and when any speech or any action takes place which attracts offences such as Sections 153A, 153B and 295A and 505 of the IPC etc., suo motu action will be taken to register cases even if no complaint is forthcoming and proceed against the offenders in accordance with law.

Respondent Nos.9 to 36 will therefore issue direction(s) to their subordinates so that appropriate action in law will be taken at the earliest. We make it clear that any hesitation to act in accordance with this direction will be viewed as contempt of this Court and appropriate action will be taken against the erring officers.

We further make it clear that such action will be taken irrespective of the religion that the maker of the speech or the person who commits such act may profess, so that the secular character of India, that is, Bharat as is envisaged by the Preamble, is preserved and protected.

Issue notice to all the proposed respondent Nos. 9-36.

Petitioner will take out notice to all the additional respondents.

Mr. S. V. Raju, learned Additional Solicitor General would submit that in CONMT.PET.(C) No. 776/2023 in W.P.(C)

6

No. 940/2022, counter affidavit has been filed in the matter but the learned counsel for the petitioner would point out that the copy of the same has not been served on the petitioner.

In fact the copy of the counter affidavit is not placed before the Court.

Copy of the counter affidavit be served on the counsel for the petitioner and the Registry to put up the same by the next date of hearing.

Place these matters for further consideration on 12th May, 2023.

(NIDHI AHUJA) (RENU KAPOOR) AR-cum-PS ASSISTANT REGISTRAR