Edit War On Justice KM Joseph's Wikipedia Page, Editing Restrictions Imposed

"Supreme Court" and "Hate Speech" were trending on Twitter yesterday after the courtroom exchanges in the Court of Justice KM Joseph and Justice BV Nagarathna were widely discussed on social media.

It was reported that when Solicitor General Tushar Mehta pointed out the instances of alleged hate speech against Brahmins by DMK leader, Justice KM Joseph smiled and Solicitor General retorted by saying that it is not a matter to be laughed at.

Yesterday evening, the Wikipedia page of Justice KM Joseph was edited to add the sentence, Justice KM Joseph is a judge of the Supreme Court of India "nick named as smiling Judge for smiling at genocide call against Hindu Brahmins on the court floor".

The screenshot of the edited page was then shared on social media. The additions were then removed through multiple edits and the editing of the page has now been restricted by imposing a "semi-protection" status to prevent "disruption or vandalism from new or unregistered users". 

Justice Joseph had also remarked that "action has an equal reaction" and that "people will react", when instances of the raising of slogans of "Sar Tan Se Juda" in different parts of the Country by members of the minority community and a clip of hate speech during a PFI rally in Kerala were pointed out before the Bench by the Solicitor General and the Counsel for an intervenor.

The Apex Court was considering an intervention application by Hindu front for Justice-Trust, an NGO from Uttar Pradesh. The application said, "Some recent instances of hate speeches, utterances and statements made against Hindus and Hindu religion by members of Muslim and Christian community are being placed on record in a summarized form".

In its application, the NGO has pointed out eight instances of beheading calls by members of the Muslim community (“Sar Tan se Juda”) and that "after such call actual incidents of beheading have taken place". The NGO has also pointed out other instances of hate speech directed against the Hindu community as a whole and against Brahmins.

The remarks of Justice Joseph resulted in a storm on social media with may expressing shock at the oral observations made by the highest court. 

"Hate speech can’t be pardoned because it is said by someone famous… Great thread, where India’s Solicitor General Tushar Mehta shows examples of hate speech to Justice Joseph" tweeted Amit Malviya, the head of BJP's IT Cell.