By Ritika Jain
The Supreme Court on Tuesday came to the relief of ex-BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma and restrained police from taking any coercive action in cases pertaining to the adverse comments she made against Prophet Mohammad, during a TV debate in May.
The bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and JB Pardhiwala issued notice to the state governments of West Bengal, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and others on her plea seeking to quash all FIRs against her filed in connection with this case, or in the alternate club the FIRs and transfer the same to Delhi.
The same bench on July 1 dismissed a similar plea filed by Sharma and said she must apologise to the nation for the disturbing comments she made against Prophet Mohammad during a TV debate on Times Now.
Sharma had told the Supreme Court that it had become impossible for her to avail alternate remedies before different high courts and there were threats to her life and liberty. "There's a real serious threat to her life. Someone has traveled from Pakistan to kill this girl," Senior advocate Maninder Singh said while representing Sharma in the top court.
"There are some people in Patna who have my address and they plan to kill me," Singh added.
The Supreme Court also took note of the video circulated by Salman Chisti, claiming to be Khadim of Ajmer Dargah who issued a call to kill Sharma. Another person has circulated a video threatening to behead Sharma, the bench noted.
The bench said that it did not intend to send Sharma to different jurisdictions when it denied her similar prayer on July 1. "We never wanted you to go everywhere. Maybe we could not convey this or you did not," the bench—which also heard Sharma's similar plea on July 1—remarked referring to its July 1 order where it pulled up Sharma for her comments against Prophet Mohammad.
On July 1, the bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and JB Pardhiwala had said Sharma must apologise to the country for the "disturbing" remarks she made against Prophet Mohammad during a TV debate on Times Now.
Her callous remarks have set the country on fire resulting in the unfortunate incident at Udaipur where a Hindu tailor was beheaded by two Muslim men after he posted a comment supporting Sharma, the top court had added.
The rebuke sparked outrage among the right-wing which called for both judges to be impeached. It also led to a flurry of disinformation about the judges, online.
Also Read: Nupur Sharma Must Apologise To The Country For Prophet Remark: SC
