Supreme Court Grants 5 Days Interim Bail To Mohammed Zubair In UP Police FIR; Restrains Him From Posting Further Tweets

The Supreme Court on Friday granted interim bail for 5 days to Mohammed Zubair, the co-founder of fact checking website AltNews, in connection with the FIR registered against him by the UP Police for a tweet in which he allegedly called 3 Hindu seers- Yati Narasinghanand Saraswati, Bajrang Muni and Anand Swaroop as 'Hate mongers'."In the meanwhile, the petitioner shall be granted interim bail in connection with FIR No. 0226 dated 01.06.2022 lodged at P.S. Khairabad, District Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh for a period of five days from today or until further orders of the Regular Bench on terms and conditions to be imposed by the Judicial Magistrate-I, Sitapur, which shall include the conditions that the petitioner shall not post any tweets and shall not tamper with any evidence, electronic or otherwise in Bengaluru or anywhere else", the Court ordered.The division bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari said the relief is subject to condition that he will not will not post any further tweets.[It be noted that Zubair is in Judicial custody in connection with a FIR registered by the Delhi Police for allegedly hurting religious sentiments and promoting enmity through his tweet made in 2018]The bench also made it clear that it has not stayed the investigation in the FIR and that interim relief does not apply to any other case pending against him.The Court was considering SLP preferred by Zubair, challenging the Allahabad High Court's refusal to quash the FIR.He was originally booked under Section 295-A of IPC which penalizes deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs and under Section 67 of the IT Act which stipulates punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form. The police later dropped Section 67 IT Act and added Section 153A IPC in the case.Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves appearing for Zubair argued that the offences alleged are not made out since Zubair merely raised voice against the "hate speech" perpetrated by the religious leaders and did not himself indulge in such an act.However, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the Investigating Officer argued that act of publicly calling a religious leader a hate monger has potential to outrage religious feelings of a particular community and incite violence and thus, the offences alleged are prima facie made out.Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the UP government argued that this is not about one tweet by Zubair but whether he is part of a syndicate which is regularly posting such tweets with the intention to destabilize the country. He added that Zubair had suppressed material fact from the Supreme Court, regarding local courts finding a prima facie case against him and refusing bail. Courtroom ExchangePreliminary ObjectionsZubair has challenged the Allahabad High Court's order refusing to quash the FIR against him. At the outset, the Solicitor General raised a preliminary objection to the plea, stating that despite Zubair's plea for bail being rejected yesterday a local court in the Sitapur district of Uttar Pradesh, this fact was suppressed in the affidavit filed by him yesterday. "This is a conduct which cannot be condoned. He is in police custody remand by a judicial order which is not pointed out to this Court. Affidavit was filed yesterday. This is clear suppression. Such a conduct unacceptable...He is seeking relief without telling your lordships that bail was rejected by a speaking order," the SG said.Hearing this, Justice Banerjee told Gonsalves that such facts should have been explained in their affidavit.Gonsalves responded that firstly, the order of local court rejecting bail was uploaded late in the night and secondly, they had approached the Supreme Court against the High Court's order in a quashing plea.Justice Banerjee told Gonsalves that there is a different remedy against the rejection of bail. "That remedy has to be availed.""That will do. Here I am against refusal to quash the FIR. Kindly see the tweet, the fountain of the allegation. Is it a criminal offence at all?" Gonsalves responded.Offences alleged not made out: GonsalvesZubair is booked under Section 295-A of IPC which penalizes deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs and under Section 67 of the IT Act which stipulates punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form.The High Court has refused to quash the case, stating that a perusal of record makes out prima facie offence.Assailing this, Gonsalves submitted,"How is this correct? How is that tweet offence under 295A or 67 IT Act. It is neither obscene nor insulting religion...My case is, even if I accept all allegations, no criminal offence is made out against me. So I seek quashing of the proceeding. Whether police custody or judicial custody, it is...

Supreme Court Grants 5 Days Interim Bail To Mohammed Zubair In UP Police FIR; Restrains Him From Posting Further Tweets

Akshita Saxena & Shruti Kakkar

Relief relates only to FIR registered by UP Police and not the case pending against him in Delhi.

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