Without conviction: Pendencies in hate speech cases have been rising

Between 2017 and 2020, the number of cases filed under Section 153A pending trial in courts doubled from 1,435 to 2,869. There was a 147 per cent jump in cases pending for 1-3 years

Last week, the government arrested Mohd. Zubair, co-founder of Alt News—a fact-checking portal—under Section 153A and Section 295 of the Indian Penal Code. Based on a complaint registered by an anonymous Twitter account, the police filed a case against Zubair for promoting enmity between groups (Section 153A) and offences relating to religion (Section 295).

However, this is not the first instance of police using Section 153A. An IndiaSpend analysis found that the filing of cases under Section 153A has increased 500 per cent between 2014 and 2020, as per NCRB data.

Further analysis by Business Standard shows that even though