Upendra Bharti | HENB | New Delhi | July 19, 2022:: The Supreme Court on Tuesday has granted interim protection from arrest to suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma for her comments on Prophet Muhammad during a TV debate that sparked controversy and violent protests across the country. The Supreme Court said that Nupur Sharma would not be arrested till the next date of hearing, August 10. The SC bench also issued notices to the Centre and several states including Delhi, West Bengal, and Maharashtra accordingly.

The Supreme Court was hearing the plea filed by Nupur Sharma, seeking to stay on her possible arrest and club nine cases filed against her across India. Counsel of Nupur Sharma has said she has been receiving death threats after the SC made adverse remarks against her.

Stating that it will correct to a small extent its earlier ruling on Sharma’s petition seeking protection from arrest and clubbing of nine FIRs against her, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala said, “We never wanted you to go to every court.”

The court also issued notices to the Union government and states like Delhi, West Bengal and Maharashtra on her petition for clubbing of the FIRs. The case will be heard next on August 10.

Sharma had also sought expunction of adverse remarks made against her on July 1 while refusing to entertain her plea for clubbing of the FIRs, saying she has been receiving death threats after the criticism.

Multiple FIRs have been filed against her for her controversial comments on Prophet Mohammad made on national television.

While refusing to entertain her plea by then, the bench had said Sharma’s remarks led to unfortunate incidents and ignited emotions across the country.

Now, the bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Pardiwala took up Sharma’s application to revive her withdrawn writ petition to club all the FIRs lodged against her across India. A total of nine FIRs are reported to have  been filed against Sharma, including one in Delhi, five in Maharashtra, two in West Bengal and one in Telangana.

Senior advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for Sharma, said the July 1 order of the Supreme Court asking her to approach concerned High Courts to seek relief on FIRs would be difficult as death threats have been made against her.

Observing that it never wanted Sharma to visit every court for relief, the division bench of Justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala issued notices to the Centre and the states where cases have been registered. Their response has been sought by August 10.

On July 1, the same bench of the top court had severely criticised (verbally without keeping it in  written order) Sharma for her controversial comments against the Prophet, saying her “loose tongue” had “set the entire country on fire” and that she is “single-handedly responsible for what is happening in the country.”

Sharma’s comments had created an uproar within the country with massive rallies taken out by Muslim groups (some of which turned violent), besides causing a diplomatic fallout with several Muslim nations registering their official protest. Soon after, she was suspended from the BJP.

At the same time, right wing Hindu groups also took out rallies in different parts of the country in support of Nupur Sharma. Even such support for Nupur Sharma was seen in Nepal and various places in USA.

Extending an open support for her remarks about Prophet Muhammad, Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders exposed the Islamic menace against Nupur Sharma and strongly  urged Hindus not to bow down to Radical Islam anyway.

In his article veteran Hindu interlocutor Upananda Brahmachari criticized the a part of Indian apex judiciary system working in a culpable mode.

More interestingly, many ex judges, ex chief justice of many High Courts, former bureaucrats and  veterans of defense wings wrote Chief Justice of India to restrain concerned bench which orally criticized Nupur Sharma in an improper way of adjudication.

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__Inputs from Agencies.

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