Legal Regulation of Hate Crimes in India: A Look at the Current Regime and its Shortcomings

There is no legally consensual definition for hate crime, however the most popular definition widely accepted is that ‘A hate crime, also known as a bias crime, is a criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society which is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin.’ It is mostly violent in nature while other discreet manners also exist. In this form of crime the individual is seen as a representative of the community he is perceived to be or is a part of and is targeted for this affiliation. This is prevalent in many of the countries round the globe in one form or the other. India too is no exception. In India it is more observable in its religious and caste based form although other forms also very much form a part of the hate crimes committed. Currently there are no legislation directly tackling hate crimes wholly but there is certain legislation to deal with them like IPC Sec.153, 153-A, 295-A, 298 which deal with promoting enmity between two groups and hate speech respectively and does not have a separate legislation with respect to mob lynching.