SC asks govt. to consider plea to treat ‘racial slur’ as a hate crime

SOCIAL – UNREST

20 FEBRUARY 2026

• The Supreme Court disagreed with the notion of pigeonholing crime on the basis of race and region, saying it would fuel polarisation, while hearing a petition seeking comprehensive guidelines to recognise ‘racial slur’ as a separate category of hate crime.
• Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, heading a three-judge Bench, said crime, whoever was on either end of it, should be dealt with an iron hand.
• Classifying crimes based on a victim’s identity could risk dividing society, Chief Justice Kant said, adding that 75 years after Independence, the nation must find strength and unity in treating all its diverse citizens equally.
• The court asked Attorney-General R. Venkataramani to consider the petition and refer it to an appropriate authority.
• The petition was filed by advocate Anoop Prakash Awasthi in the aftermath of shock and public grief over the fatal attack on Anjel Chakma, a 24-year-old MBA student from Tripura, by a group of men in Uttarakhand.
• Chakma was attacked after he resisted heckling while out shopping with his younger brother. He died under medical treatment on December 27, 2025, never regaining consciousness.
• The petition recounted Chakma’s tragic words to his attackers, “We are Indians. What certificate should we show to prove that?”
• The petitioner urged the Supreme Court “that we must do something” and said people cannot shrug and walk away when somebody was being beaten up by a mob.
• He had argued that the new bouquet of criminal laws, including the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, hardly addressed the issue of hate crime, racial discrimination, and violence against Indian citizens, especially from the northeastern States and other frontier regions.

Pigeonholing crime It means putting crimes into fixed, narrow categories, especially based on factors like race, region, religion, or identity, instead of treating them simply as crimes.