New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Centre, city government and police to come up with a law to prevent hate crimes against migrants and issued a slew of directions like expeditious disposal of cases and deploying security personnel for safety of people from northeast and other states.
A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw, which had taken suo motu cognizance of media reports about the death of Arunchal youth Nido Tania, said that the courts should expeditiously deal with the cases of harassment of people from Northeast and sought "outreach programmes for making people from Northeastern states in Delhi aware of their legal rights and to render the requisite legal aid to them".
"No native of any state of India can be allowed to, by harassing, offending and by other criminal acts, prevent people from another state to settle and carry on any business or vocation therein.
"Today, when the boundaries between countries and restriction on movement internationally are disappearing, it is unfortunate that a small cross section of society is attempting to put up barriers to movement within the country. The Constitution of India does not provide for, India as a confederation of states, broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls but as a Union of States," the bench said.
It said that the Centre and Delhi government should bring a legislation for preventing natives of one state from harassing in any manner the migrants.
"We are further of the view that the GNCTD as well as the Central government should give thought to the possibility of bringing a legislation for preventing the natives of one state from harassing in any manner the migrants from any other Indian states or from indulging in hate crimes against them, including by amendment to the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1995 and Scheduled castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act), 1989," the bench said.
The bench has also directed Delhi police to ensure safety of people from Northeast by deploying force in the localities, where such migrants stay.
The High Court had issued direction after taking suo motu cognizance on February 3 of media reports about the death of 19-year-old Tania, son of an Arunachal Pradesh MLA, after he was allegedly beaten up by shopkeepers in Lajpat Nagar area in South Delhi.
