New Delhi, Feb 18 The Supreme Court on Wednesday disposed of a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking the framing of pan-India guidelines to address “continuing constitutional failure” in dealing with racially motivated violence against citizens from the North-Eastern states.
Terming as “unfortunate” the recent incident involving the murder of a Tripura student in Uttarakhand’s Dehradun, a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant asked the PIL litigant to place the issues before the Attorney General (AG) for India, the highest law officer of the Union government.
“At this stage, we deem it appropriate that the aforesaid issues ought to be brought before the competent authority through the good office of the learned AG,” observed the Bench, also comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi.
The PIL, filed under Article 32 of the Constitution, stated that even after the enactment of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, there is “no statutory recognition of hate or racial crimes, no mandatory recording of bias motivation at the FIR stage, and no specialised investigative or victim-protection mechanisms.”
During the hearing, the petitioner urged the apex court to establish a dedicated mechanism, at least within educational institutions, to address grievances arising from identity-based discrimination.
“It is very painful. I have so many friends from the Northeast. This exists. Nobody can deny it. This is a very big issue. If something happens, the bystander will just smile and go away while the fellow gets attacked,” advocate Anoop Prakash Awasthi, appearing as petitioner in-person, submitted.
However, the CJI Kant-led Bench expressed reservations about creating region-specific mechanisms.
“The moment we start entertaining litigations where the victims are unfortunately targeted because of their region, the negative message which will be, people will start identifying he is Keralite, Tamilian, Kashmirian, etc. (W)e have a strong federal structure, we are supposed to be stronger with unity and not to be identified with regions,” it orally remarked.
The PIL was filed in the backdrop of the brutal assault and subsequent death of Tripura native Angel Chakma in Uttarakhand’s Dehradun. A final-year MBA student, Chakma, was allegedly attacked on December 9, 2025, in Dehradun’s Selaqui area following an altercation with a group of youths who, according to a complaint lodged by his brother, hurled racial slurs before assaulting him with sharp objects.
Referring to the incident, the petition quoted Chakma’s last recorded assertion during the confrontation: “We are not Chinese… We are Indians. What certificate should we show to prove that?”
The PIL stated that these words “tragically became his final assertion of constitutional belonging before the assault escalated into fatal violence”.
The plea contended that despite the apparent hate-based and racial motivation, such offences continue to be treated as “ordinary crimes”, resulting in the erasure of motive and dilution of constitutional gravity.
“There is no mechanism in the initial criminal justice response system to recognise racial offences as a distinct constitutional wrong,” the petition stated, adding that this perpetuates a pattern of impunity.
Highlighting past incidents, including the 2014 death of Nido Taniam, the plea argued that the killing of Angel Chakma is “not an isolated incident but part of a long-standing pattern of racial violence” against citizens from the North-Eastern states, a phenomenon acknowledged by the Union government in parliamentary replies.
The PIL sought the issuance of binding guidelines recognising racially motivated violence as a distinct constitutional wrong and ensuring effective protection of dignity, equality and fraternity for all citizens.
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