SC Says It Can’t Monitor All Hate Speech as November Saw 50+ Daily Hate Crimes
When hate crimes multiply, where does responsibility lie if the court steps back from monitoring?
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SC on monitoring hate speech cases.
(The Quint/Aroop Mishra)
On 25 November 2025, the Supreme Court bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said they “can’t legislate or monitor every hate speech case,” adding that “police stations are competent” and that “State High Courts can deal with it.” The court’s stance comes at a time when hate-fuelled incidents are neither isolated nor sporadic. November alone saw 50+ reported hate crimes, averaging at least one case every single day of the month. These weren’t just online flare-ups or fringe comments but physical attacks, targeted threats, humiliation, and open calls for exclusion — all across states.
November saw 50+ hate crimes, one daily.
(The Quint/Aroop Mishra)
A daily hate crime count raises an old question: who keeps track?
(The Quint/Aroop Mishra)
What makes the court’s remarks more striking is its own 2018 judgment, where it squarely condemned hate crimes and upheld the state’s ‘sacrosanct duty’ to protect dignity, life, and equality. The contrast between then and now raises an urgent question: when institutions step back from monitoring hate, who steps in?
A country facing daily hate crimes needs more than advice to ‘go to the police’.
(The Quint/Aroop Mishra)
The Quint has been tracking incidents of hate through its Hate Crime Tracker — documenting reported incidents that often go unnoticed in official data and inconsistent police records. The numbers from November reiterate what communities on the ground already know: everyday communalism is becoming ordinary, even predictable. And someone needs to keep count.