Supreme Court asks UP Police to not take action against Mohd Zubair till July 20

The Supreme Court asked Uttar Pradesh Police to not take any precipitative action against fact checker Mohammed Zubair in connection with the FIR registered against him over his 2018 tweets till July 20.

The bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna was addressing the writ petition filed by Zubair seeking the dismissal of the FIRs. The court has listed the plea for Wednesday.

The court noted that the contents of all FIRs seem to be similar. It seems that he is remanded in another as he gets bail in one case. "This vicious cycle is continuing." The bench took up the petition today after Advocate Vrinda Grover drew attention to the urgency over the threats Zubair is facing.

The top court said it is directing the Registry to list the matter on July 20 since the petition is not on board today. "In the meantime, we direct that no precipitative action be taken against the petitioner in five FIRs without the leave of the Court."

Zubair's plea is seeking to dismiss six FIRs lodged against him in Uttar Pradesh - two in Hathras, and one each in Ghaziabad, Muzzafarnagar, Lakhimpur Kheri, and Sitapur. The FIRs alleged that he hurt religious sentiments, made sarcastic remarks on news anchors, disrespected Hindu gods, and shared inflammatory posts.

He also challenged the constitution of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) by the Uttar Pradesh government to probe six cases that are the subject matter of the FIR being investigated by the Delhi Police special cell.

Grover argued that the FIR was lodged against him by the complainant after a cash prize was put on his head. She added that different complaints are being registered over the same allegations and the same tweet.