Incitement to violence: When will Supreme Court take note?

In the Tehseen Poonawala judgement, the Court had asked that a Nodal Officer be appointed in each district to monitor and identify, with police help, tendencies for vigilantism, mob-violence.

Chief Justice N V Ramana recently exhorted journalists to do their duty and not be “co-opted by an ideology or State”. He declared that the media must defend the judiciary “from motivated attacks” and claimed, “We are together in Mission Democracy and in promoting national interest.”

In that spirit of togetherness one must ask whether the Supreme Court has itself been lax in ensuring the implementation of its orders, in particular the historic order of 17 July 2018 on hate speech inciting mob lynching in Tehseen Poonawala vs. Union of India.

While the Executive is perhaps opportunistically silent, the Supreme