New Delhi, April 29 -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday, April 29, ruled that existing laws are sufficient to deal with hate speech and that no legislative vacuum exists that would warrant judicial intervention, declining to pass additional directions sought in a batch of petitions filed over the past five years.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta held that the creation of criminal offences and the prescription of punishments lies squarely within the legislative domain and that courts cannot compel Parliament or state legislatures to act.

"The Constitutional scheme founded upon the doctrine of separation of powers does not permit the judiciary to create new offences or expand the contours of criminal liability through judic...