The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted interim bail relief to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in all six cases registered against him across Uttar Pradesh.
“There is no justification to keep the petitioner in continued detention especially since the gravamen of allegations in UP FIRs is similar to that in Delhi police FIR,” Justice DY Chandrachud noted while granting bail relief in all the cases filed against Zubair.
With respect to the quashing of the FIRs against Zubair, Justice Chandrachud said that the Delhi police FIR has offences of cognate nature which is similar to the UP police FIRs and therefore, it would be needed to club together all FIRs and hand them over to one investigating authority.
What Supreme Court said on FIRs against Alt News co-founder as compared to remarks by SC judges against Nupur Sharma
With the Supreme Court granting interim protection to Mohammed Zubair in all the FIRs filed against him, it is germane to compare the top court’s stand on FIRs against the Alt News co-founder with those made against Nupur Sharma, who continues to be at the receiving end of Islamists after Zubair dog whistled against her and accused her of insulting Prophet Muhammad.
While the Supreme Court admonished Nupur Sharma over her remarks, stating that her “loose tongue” was responsible for the current predicament in the country, the top court on Wednesday said it cannot stop Mohammed Zubair from tweeting.
Making scathing remarks against Nupur Sharma, the Supreme Court judges said her comments were aimed at causing provocation. But on Mohammed Zubair, the court said it could not anticipatorily curtail his right to free speech.
While rejecting Nupur Sharma’s petition to club multiple FIRs against her, all of which were similar in nature, the court said her plea smacked of “arrogance” and that the Magistrates of the country were too small for her. But in Zubair’s case, the Supreme Court said it is clubbing all the FIRs and transferring them to Delhi because they were of the “same nature”.
However, it is worth noting that there are different FIRs registered against Mohammed Zubair. The FIRs against Mohammed Zubair are for hate speech against saints, instigating riots, Hinduphobic tweets, defaming a news channel among other things.
The Supreme Court judges held Nupur Sharma single-handedly responsible for setting the country on fire. While on multiple cases against Mohammed Zubair, including the one for hurting religious sentiments with his disparaging tweets against Hindu gods, the top court said his continued detention is not justified.
The Supreme Court judges who rejected Nupur Sharma’s plea to club FIRs held her responsible even for the Udaipur killing, where a Hindu man was killed in broad daylight by Islamists for making a social media post in support of the former BJP spokesperson. But while granting Mohammed Zubair interim relief, the court observed there is no reason for deprivation of his liberty to persist.
On Nupur Sharma, the SC judges asked her to apologise on national TV while on Mohammed Zubair, the court said they cannot say that he will not tweet again. Nupur Sharma’s remarks, the judges observed, indicated her “obstinate arrogant character”. For Mohammed Zubair, the court said he will be answerable as per law.
In the light of bail granted to Alt News co-founder, several media professionals highlighted the top court’s reaction to Nupur Sharma vis-à-vis their stand on Mohammed Zubair’s arrest. But none put it as incisively and precisely as India Today journalist Shiv Aroor.
In his show on India Today, Aroor placed Supreme Court’s observations on FIRs against Nupur Sharma side by side with that made by the top court in Mohammed Zubair’s case.
Milord. pic.twitter.com/2G9JzYWD7w
— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) July 20, 2022
FIRs against Mohammed Zubair and Nupur Sharma
Zubair was arrested by Delhi Police last month over a complaint filed by a social media user over his old tweets where he had insulted Hindu Gods and Goddesses. He was arrested under Section 153 which deals with wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riots and 295A of the Indian Penal Code which entails deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs. Since then, multiple FIRs were filed against him in connection with different cases in various parts of Uttar Pradesh.
On the other hand, after being ceaselessly hounded by Islamists who bayed for her blood and called for her beheading, multiple FIRs were filed against Nupur Sharma in different parts of the country for her comments on Prophet Muhammad derived from authentic and reliable Islamic Hadiths. While filing the petition to club the FIRs, the Supreme Court judges reprimanded her and held her single-handedly responsible for setting the country on fire.
