A Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice Bobde has stayed the arrest of Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor, Rajdeep Sardesai, Vinod K Jose, Mrinal Pande, Zafar Agha, Anant Nath and Paresh Nath over the multiple FIRs filed against them over their responses/tweets on social media about a young farmer’s death on Republic Day, reported LiveLaw.
The top court Bench passed the order while issuing a notice on the writ petitions filed by them and will consider the petition after two weeks. Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal requested the Bench to grant interim protection from coercive action but the Bench was reluctant at first. Eventually, Senior Counsel Sibal was able to persuade the top court by informing them that the police from different States can land up at the house of the petitioners to arrest them.
According to LiveLaw, Chief Justice Bobde asked the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, “Mr. Mehta, are you going to arrest these people? The matter is covered as far we are concerned. Are you going to arrest them till we hear you?”
SG Tushar Mehta (appearing for Delhi Police) requested the Bench to post the matter for tomorrow, but the court extended it to another two weeks and stayed the arrest till then. SG Mehta, then submitted that he can make a statement, to which the CJI asked if he can make a statement for all the states (Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh) involved in the matter.
Meanwhile, as per a LiveLaw report, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the editor of “The Caravan Magazine”, Vinod K Jose, submitted that the FIRs were baseless. He remarked, “Where is the crime about reporting? Where is the question of religious sentiments being hurt?” He added that the report about the protester being shot dead was corrected immediately.
The SG then interjected to contend that he can show the “horrendous effect” the tweets in question can have on lakhs of online followers.
Multiple FIRs have been lodged against the petitioners in Noida (Uttar Pradesh), Madhya Pradesh and Delhi for allegedly spreading ‘fake news’ on the death of Navneet Singh, a protester in central Delhi when thousands of farmers entered areas in the national capital, that were not in the agreed route of the tractor rally.
These FIRs further state that all accused persons through their “fake, misleading and wrong” tweets, tried to imply that the death of the farmer was caused by the violence committed by Delhi Police under directions of the Central government. On February 3, 2021, all the accused persons approached the Supreme Court in this matter.
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