New Delhi

The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday refused to entertain a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking measures to prevent discrimination and violence against citizens from the Northeast and other regions, observing that identifying people on the basis of race, region, sex or caste would amount to taking a regressive path.

“A crime is a crime and it must be dealt with an iron hand,” said a bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi. The bench asked Attorney General R Venkataramani to consider the petition and refer it to an appropriate authority.

“Identifying persons on the ground of race, region, sex and caste would amount to treading a regressive path after so many years of independence,” the bench said.

At the outset, petitioner Anoop Prakash Awasthi, a Delhi-based advocate, submitted that the issue had earlier been raised on the floor of Parliament, but lawmakers declined to set up any dedicated agency to deal with such hate crimes.

The PIL, filed on December 28 last year, was moved in the backdrop of the killing of Anjel Chakma, a 24-year-old MBA student from Tripura, who died on December 26, 2025, after sustaining grievous injuries in a racially motivated attack in the Selaqui area of Dehradun.

Awasthi told the court that no one came forward to save Chakma during the attack.

Refusing to entertain the plea, the apex court said, “As of now, we deem it appropriate that the aforesaid issue ought to be brought before the competent authority.”

“The instant writ petition is disposed of with liberty to the petitioner to hand over the soft copy of the petition to the office of the Attorney General, along with a copy of this order,” the bench said, adding that the top law officer would do the needful.

The PIL sought judicial intervention to address what it described as a “continuing constitutional failure” to prevent and respond to racial discrimination and violence against citizens from northeastern states and other frontier regions.

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Chakma had moved to Dehradun to pursue an MBA after completing his schooling at Holy Cross School in Agartala. He was allegedly stabbed to death in the presence of his younger brother, Michael. His family has demanded capital punishment or, at the least, life imprisonment for all the accused in the case.