The Supreme Court on Monday, 18 July, directed the Uttar Pradesh police to not take any precipitative action against Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair until Wednesday, 20 July, in connection with the 5 FIRs registered against him in the state.
The bench of Justice DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna added that the court will consider his plea to quash the cases against him on Wednesday.
The court was hearing an urgent listing of his plea filed by him on Monday in the Supreme Court. The plea sought quashing of FIRs lodged against him in several districts of Uttar Pradesh for allegedly outraging religious feelings.
Separate FIRs have been lodged against Zubair in Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar, and Hathras districts on charges of allegedly hurting religious feelings, making sarcastic remarks on news anchors, disrespecting Hindu gods, and inflammatory posts.
'Vicious Cycle Continuing': Chandrachud
"Contents of all FIRs seem to be similar. What seems to be happening is, as he gets bail in one case, he is remanded in another. This vicious cycle is continuing," Justice Chandrachud said during the hearing.
The court noted in its order that interim bail in the Sitapur FIR had already been granted. On 15 July, the Patiala House court had granted him regular bail in the Delhi Police FIR.
Earlier on Monday, a bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana took note of the submissions by Zubair's lawyer Vrinda Grover that the petitioner, a fact-checker and journalist, has been facing a slew of FIRs and his plea needed an urgent hearing.
The fresh plea of Zubair has also challenged the constitution of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) by the Uttar Pradesh government to probe the six cases.
The plea said all the six FIRs filed in Uttar Pradesh, which have been transferred to the SIT for investigation, is the subject matter of the FIR which is being probed by the Delhi Police special cell.
(With inputs from PTI and LiveLaw.)
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