New Delhi: The Supreme Court Wednesday granted interim bail to Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera after he was arrested by the Assam Police in Delhi over his alleged derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“In order to protect the petitioner until he applies for regular bail before the jurisdictional court in relation to all FIRs, we direct till next date of listing the petitioner shall be released on interim bail by Delhi court this evening,” the bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice M.R. Shah and Justice P.S. Narasimha said.
The bench also reportedly accepted that, “taken on their face value, the spoken words do not lead to the sections invoked in the FIR.”
The top court said that Khera should be released on interim bail on production before the jurisdictional magistrate in Delhi, till the next date of hearing on 28 February.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi told the court that Khera will tender an unconditional apology for the statement.
After dictating the order, CJI Chandrachud told Singhvi, “We have protected you.. but there has to be some level of discourse.”
The apex court also issued notice to the UP and Assam governments, on Khera’s plea for clubbing all the FIRs against him.
In a press conference held on 17 February in Mumbai, Khera was attacking the government over the Hindenburg-Gautam Adani row, when he said that when a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) could be set up by former prime ministers P.V. Narasimha Rao and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, “what is the problem of Narendra Gautamdas, sorry… Narendra Damodardas Modi”?
“I genuinely got confused whether it is Damodardas or Gautam Das…,” Khera later tweeted.
Multiple FIRs were then filed in Uttar Pradesh–in Varanasi and Lucknow– and Assam. The FIRs mention various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including Sections 153A (disturbing religious harmony), 153 B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national interest) and 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship, with intent to insult the religion of any class).
Khera was arrested Monday, by Assam cops at the Delhi airport, after being deplaned from a flight to Chhattisgarh’s capital Raipur. After he was deboarded, Congress workers reportedly stepped out of the plane and protested on tarmac.
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‘Deliberate and calculative’
Singhvi made an urgent mentioning of the matter before the bench at 2pm, informing the judges that Khera was deplaned and arrested. The senior advocate then demanded the FIRs against Khera be clubbed.
The bench then assembled at 3pm to hear the matter.
Singhvi submitted that the offences invoked against Khera are all punishable with a maximum punishment between three to five years. He asserted that Khera could not have been arrested directly, in light of the Supreme Court’s judgment in the Arnesh Kumar case, which requires police officers to issue a notice of appearance in cases involving offenses with a jail term of less than seven years, instead of arresting the accused straight away.
Appearing for the Assam government, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati claimed that Khera’s statement was “deliberate and calculative”, countering Singhvi’s submission that the statement was a mistake.
“This statement is made with an intent so that public discourse is taken away and it incites public disaffection. It is against a duly elected prime minister of the country,” she submitted.
Bhati also shared a video of the Mumbai press conference to the bench, and the video was played in the court. “Your lordships may see the facial expressions and the laughs all around. This is deliberate and calculated to insult the PM of the country,” the additional solicitor general contended.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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