The Kerala High Court on Thursday adjourned to May 27 the hearing on the anticipatory bail plea of former MLA P.C. George in the Palarivattom police registered hate speech case as well as the bail petition in the Thiruvananthapuram hate speech case.
When the petition came up for hearing, Justice Gopinath P. asked Director General of Prosecution T.A. Shaji to inform the court the purpose the police would achieve by keeping Mr. George in custody for interrogation when the videographs of both his speeches were available.
The court asked what sort of investigation the police were going to conduct into the case. The court also asked whether violation of the condition of the bail itself was itself a ground for cancellation of the bail.
The DGP submitted that the offence committed by Mr. George was very serious. He had also violated the bail condition with impunity.
Mr. George in his bail petition submitted that the magistrate court in Thiruvanhtapuram ought to have waited for the decision of the High Court on his anticipatory bail petition before cancelling the bail of the petitioner. Unless there was a special and extraordinary circumstance compelling the cancellation of bail, the magistrate court should not have cancelled the bail.
He contended that a total reading of his entire speech established that he had never intended to incite religious sentiments. He was only pointing out certain instances of discrimination by the State in treating persons belonging to different religions and it was clearly a statement that comes under Article 19 of the Constitution of India which guarantees freedom of speech and expression. The petitioner had only made a speech in accordance with Article 19 of the Constitution of India.
