The Supreme Court on Monday ordered that the interim protection granted to Mohammed Zubair, Co-founder of Alt News by the apex court in the case registered against him by Uttar Pradesh Police will continue until further orders.
“State seeks time to file a counter affidavit. Reply to be filed within 4 weeks and rejoinder within 2 weeks thereafter. Interim bail in Sitapur FIR case shall continue till further orders. List for final disposal on September 7, 2022,” said the order by a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna. The matter is directed to be listed for final disposal on September 7.
Earlier, the vacation bench of the Supreme Court led by Justice Indira Banerjee had granted Zubair interim bail for 5 days in the case.
The Supreme court was hearing a plea by Zubair seeking quashing of the first information report (FIR) registered against him by UP Police in Sitapur.
The UP police had registered a case against Zubair for “hurting religious sentiments” over a tweet, in which he had called out against hate speech givers Mahant Bajrang Muni, Yati Narsinghanand and Swami Anand Swaroop referring to them as “hate mongers.”
Zubair has been booked under IPC Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act).
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Rabia Shireen is a Staff Reporter at The Cognate.
