HC reserves order on Digvijaya Singh's PIL on 2020 communal violence in MP

Indore, Nov 27 The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Thursday reserved its order on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh regarding the communal violence reported in three districts of the state in December 2020.

The incidents had occurred during rallies linked to an alleged fundraising drive for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

Filed in 2021, the PIL alleged that some organisations disturbed communal harmony under the guise of collecting donations for the temple.

A division bench of Justices Vijay Kumar Shukla and Binod Kumar Dwivedi of the Indore bench reserved the order after hearing arguments from all the parties.

During the hearing, Singh stated that the state was not complying with the Supreme Court's detailed 2018 guidelines meant to prevent communal violence, mob attacks and hate speech, and that victims of such incidents were not receiving adequate relief.

The state government opposed his submissions and sought dismissal of the PIL.

Respondents in the petition included the state government and the police and administrative officials posted in Indore, Ujjain and Mandsaur districts where violence had broken out in December 2020.