On Friday, the Supreme Court rejected to hear a petition seeing directions for the arrest of former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma for purportedly controversial comments on the Islamic prophet. A bench of Chief Justice U.U. Lalit, Justice Ravindra Bhat, and Justice P.S. Narasimha heard the case.
The court ruled that while it appears to be extremely basic and benign, it has far-reaching repercussions. “This may sound simple and innocuous but it has far reaching consequences. The court should circumspect while issuing directions. Dismissed as withdrawn,” the court directed.
Supreme Court refuses to entertain a plea seeking directions to the authorities to act and arrest former BJP Spokesperson Nupur Sharma for her alleged hate statement against Prophet Mohammad and hurting sentiments of the Muslim community.
— ANI (@ANI) September 9, 2022
These remarks by the court follow after the petitioner’s attorney emphasised the alternative prayer, which asks for the implementation of the Tehseen Ponnawalla judgment’s guidelines regarding the control of mob lynching, when the bench indicated its unwillingness to consider the plea under Article 32.
Through Advocate Chand Qureshi, Advocate Abu Sohel filed a petition requesting guidelines for an “independent, credible, and impartial investigation” into the incident. But after the apex court refused to hear it, the petition was withdrawn by the petitioners and the matter was dismissed by the court. The petition was mentioned before a vacation bench for urgent listing on the first week of July, but the bench had refused an urgent hearing and had asked to mention it before the registrar.
All FIRs against Nupur Sharma that had been filed in various areas of the nation due to her comments on the Islamic prophet had already been transferred to Delhi Police by the Supreme Court.
Islamists throughout the globe, not only in India, were outraged by the alleged “blasphemous” comment made regarding Prophet Muhammad by former BJP spokeswoman Nupur Sharma on May 26 this year. Her move to just repeat a passage from the Islamic Hadith during a TV broadcast proved disastrous for her political career, mental health and the life of her family members including herself after AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair dog-whistled about her remarks to Islamists.
This triggered a chain of incidents that resulted in a steady onslaught of threats against Sharma and assaults on anyone who ventured to come out in her favour, many of which turned out to be unbelievably cruel.
