Supreme Court Refuses To Stay Criminal Proceedings Against Jitendra Tyagi, Agrees To Consider Plea To Club Hate Speech Cases

The Supreme Court today (March 28) refused to stay proceedings against Jitendra Narayan Tyagi(formerly Wasim Rizvi), former Chairman of UP Shia Wakf Board, in multiple criminal cases against him for alleged hate speeches. It further declined to grant protection to Tyagi in one of the cases registered in Srinagar, where the trial court issued a non-bailable warrant against him and directed the SSP to form a Special Task Force to arrest Tyagi. However, the Court agreed to consider his plea to club the criminal cases at one place and issued notice on his writ petition.The bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta was hearing a writ petition filed by former member and Chairman of the Shia Central Wakf Board of Uttar Pradesh, Jitender Tyagi, aka Wasim Rizvi, seeking to club multiple criminal cases he is facing due to alleged hate speeches by him at the Dharm Sansad held in Haridwar and in Lucknow in 2021. Apart from the writ petition, the bench was also considering the application for a stay of the criminal proceedings both in the Courts of Srinagar and Hardiwar, and to grant him bail in the Srinagar matter. Notably, 3 criminal cases have been registered against Tyagi for his alleged hate speeches at Dharm Sansad, Haridwar and one criminal case is registered against him in Srinagar for his alleged statements against the Muslim community in Lucknow, which were broadcast on TV channels on December 7, 2021. All these cases are being tried individually so far. Counsel for the petitioner, AOR Anurag Kishore at the outset had requested the bench to grant him protection as the petitioner was facing threats to life and personal liberty. It was the case of the petitioner that he was completely unaware of the proceedings of the Srinagar complaint case, and it was only in the last week of February 2025 that the petitioner came to know that the trial court at Srinagar had ordered to constitute a special task force to arrest the petitioner through news channels. The conversation between Justice Nath and the counsel went as follows: Justice Nath : "We are not staying the proceedings." Counsel : "Kindly protect me mylords" Justice Nath : - "Protection you must have got in individual cases, we are not protecting you at this stage where you have sought for transfer ...if you wanted some protection you should have taken to individual cases...you wanted the cases to be tried at one place that is what we are considering, that's it." While the Court was inclined to dismiss the petition, on the request of the Counsel, the bench agreed to issue notice returnable after 4 weeks. Notably, the Supreme Court in September 2022 had granted bail to Tyagi in relation to the alleged hate speeches made at the Dharm Sansad. It had issued notice on a writ petition filed by Tyagi seeking to club the subsequent FIRs. This however did not include the criminal complaint lodged in Srinagar. Jitendra Tyagi, who was formerly known as Wasim Rizvi, was once the Chairman of the UP Shia Waqf Board. In December last year, he converted to Hinduism and accepted the name Jitendra Narayan Singh Tyagi.The following are the reliefs sought by Tyagi in the main petition are: a. Amalgamate all 3 Criminal Cases and 1 Complaint Case i.e. bearing no. 11233/2022 arising from FIR NO. 810 of 2021 u/s 153A, 504, P.S. Kotwali Haridwar dated 15.11.2021, Case no. 11234/2022 arising from FIR bearing no.849 of 2021 u/s 153A, 295A IPC P.S. Kotwali Haridwar dated 23.12.2021, case no. 1353/2022 arising from FIR bearing No.08 of 2022 u/s 153A, 298 IPC P.S. Kotwali Haridwar dated 01.01.2022(all the said 3 cases pending before Ld. Chief Judicial Magistrate Haridwar, Uttarakhand) and Complaint Case no. 12 of 2021 pending before the Ld. Court of II Additional Munsif, Judicial Magistrate First Class, Srinagar to be brought before the Ld. Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Haridwar where the cases arising from the aforesaid FIRs registered at Haridwar are being trial separately; And/orb. Pass any other or further order(s) as this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper in the facts and circumstance of the case. The petition has been filed with the assistance of AOR Anurag Kishore and Advocates Lakhan Kumar Mishra, Ritika SrivastavaCase Details : JITENDRA NARAYAN TYAGI @ SYED WASEEM RIZVI Versus STATE OF UTTARAKHAND AND ORS.| W.P.(Crl.) No. 127/2025 Click Here To Read/Download Order

Supreme Court Refuses To Stay Criminal Proceedings Against Jitendra Tyagi, Agrees To Consider Plea To Club Hate Speech Cases

Anmol Kaur Bawa

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