The Congress government, led by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, introduced the Telangana Hate Speech and Hate Crimes (Prevention) Bill, 2026, in the Legislative Assembly on Sunday.

As per the Bill, hate crimes can be punished with a minimum jail term of one year and a maximum of seven years with a fine of Rs 50,000. For a repeat offender, the minimum term of imprisonment will be two years, and it can go up to a maximum of 10 years and a fine of Rs 1 lakh. Courts may also award adequate compensation to the victim depending on the gravity and impact of the crime.

The Bill also makes a provision to penalise organisations or institutions that perpetuate hate crimes. If the offence is committed by an organisation or institution, then each person involved in any managerial capacity of the said organisation or institution shall be penalised, unless they prove that they were not involved in the commission of the offence.

According to the Bill, hate speech includes any “expression which is made, published or circulated, in words either spoken or written or by signs or by visible representations or through electronic communication or otherwise” that meets “prejudicial interest”. Hate speech will include all those expressions which are intended to cause injury, disharmony, feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will against people, a group of people or a community.

The Bill defines as prejudicial any bias on the grounds of “religion, race, caste or community, sex, gender, sexual orientation, place of birth, residence, language, disability or tribe”.

Hate crime is defined as any communication of hate speech by making, publishing or circulating any act of promoting, propagating, inciting, abetting or attempting such hate speech to cause disharmony.

A designated officer can facilitate the removal of material that may constitute hate crimes from any platform, including electronic platforms, the Bill says.

Offences under the Bill are cognizable, non-bailable and triable by a Judicial Magistrate of First Class.

The Bill says that in recent years, there have been several cases where hate speech and hate crimes have been disseminated through digital and social media platforms to cause disharmony in society. “The existing legal framework does not comprehensively address the evolving nature and manifestations of hate speech and hate crimes, necessitating a dedicated or robust legislation to effectively prevent, regulate and penalise such conduct, while also ensuring protection and redress to affected persons,” it says.