NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday disposed of a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking the framing of pan-India guidelines to address “continuing constitutional failure” in dealing with racially motivated violence against citizens from the North-Eastern states.
Terming as “unfortunate” the recent incident involving the murder of a Tripura student in Uttarakhand’s Dehradun, a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant asked the PIL litigant to place the issues before the Attorney General (AG) for India, the highest law officer of the Union government.
“At this stage, we deem it appropriate that the aforesaid issues ought to be brought before the competent authority through the good office of the learned AG, ” observed the Bench, also comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi.
The PIL, filed under Article 32 of the Constitution, stated that even after the enactment of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, there is “no statutory recognition of hate or racial crimes, no mandatory recording of bias motivation at the FIR stage, and no specialised investigative or victim-protection mechanisms.”