Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 19: The controversial BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma cannot be arrested in the nine cases against her over her comments against Prophet Muhammad for now. The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed that “no coercive action” could be taken against her by any state police in connection with the complaints filed against her in several states till the next date of hearing on August 10.
The top court also said it never intended the BJP leader to visit every court for relief in the hate speech cases against her. “In the light of the subsequent events, the concern of this Court is how to ensure that the petitioner is able to seek alternate remedy. In order to explore such modality, we issue notice,” said a bench of Justices Surya Kant and J B Pardiwala.
On Nupur Sharma’s plea, the bench issued notices to the states where the FIRs and complaints have been filed against her. The court asked various states to respond to her request to combine multiple FIRs against her into one. The Supreme Court will take up Nupur Sharma’s request on August 10 and until then, no new cases can be filed. Delhi, Maharashtra, Telangana, West Bengal, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Assam are the states that have been asked to respond to her case.
The order was issued after Nupur Sharma’s lawyer told the top court that she had been facing increasing threats to her life since the court’s scathing order on July 1. “There is ever increasing threat to her safety. No amount of security could help her. Whatever happened in Supreme Court last time may have happened. But there is a real and genuine threat now. In Bengal also there is an FIR against her,” said Nupur Sharma’s lawyer Maninder Singh.
After the July 1 order, she pleaded, there had been instances like an Ajmer Dargah employee threatening on video to slit her throat and another UP resident abusing her and threatening to behead her.
“More FIRs have been registered in Bengal and the Kolkata police has issued a look out circular against her due to which she apprehends her immediate arrest and denial of opportunity to approach different High Courts to seek the quashing of FIRs,” the lawyer said.
“There is a real threat to her life. There were reports of someone travelling from Pakistan to kill her. Some persons were apprehended in Patna,” Singh submitted. He said there was an “imminent necessity” to protect her life and liberty as guaranteed under Article 21.
The same bench had on July 1 declined to entertain Nupur Sharma’s plea saying that the court was not convinced about her protection against arrest and that she “has a very loose tongue and is single-handedly responsible for what is happening in the country including the murder of a tailor in Udaipur for allegedly sharing her remarks.
The Supreme Court bench noted that after its order on July 1, various incidents including “one Salman Chisti, claiming to be Khadim of Ajmer Dargah has circulated a video calling for killing the petitioner; another person has a circulated a video threatening to behead the petitioner and some more FIRs have been registered.” It also noted in its order that Sharma has apprehensions of being arrested as the Kolkata police had issued a lookout circular against her
“To that extent, we are correcting. We did not intend that you have to go all places,” the bench said on Tuesday. This time, the Bench issued notice on her plea to either quash all the cases against her or, in the alternative, transfer them from various States to Delhi in order to safeguard her right against multiple prosecution for the same offence. The Bench has sought responses from the States of West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra and Telangana in this regard.
“Meanwhile, as an interim measure it is directed that no coercive shall be taken against Nupur Sharma,” the court directed. Her advocate Maninder Singh had requested the top court’s permission on July 1 to withdraw the plea instead of having it dismissed. The bench allowed the petition to be withdrawn with liberty to avail alternate remedies.
Nupur Sharma filed a fresh application on July 18 seeking protection from arrest and clubbing of cases against her. “I beseech your Lordships. The threat is genuine and real now,” Singh said. “There are already laid down laws on how there cannot be multiple FIRs for same offence,” Singh argued.
“On July 1 we had given liberty to the petitioner to seeking other legal remedies. But now she points out that it’s become impossible for her to seek other legal remedies. And there is an immediate need to protect her life and liberty,” said Justice Surya Kant.
In the July 1 hearing, the Supreme Court had said Nupur Sharma should apologise to the country for triggering tension with her comments. “The way she has ignited emotions across the country. This lady is single-handedly responsible for what is happening in the country,” the judges had said. “She actually has a loose tongue and has made all kinds of irresponsible statements on TV and set the entire country on fire. Yet, she claims to be a lawyer of 10 years standing… She should have immediately apologised for her comments to the whole country,” the Supreme Court had said.