SC to pronounce verdict on plea of TV anchor against FIRs lodged for his remarks on sufi saint

Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce on Monday its verdict on a plea of TV news anchor Amish Devgan seeking quashing of FIRs lodged against him for his alleged defamatory remark against Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti in a show telecast on June 15.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce on Monday its verdict on a plea of TV news anchor Amish Devgan seeking quashing of FIRs lodged against him for his alleged defamatory remark against Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti in a show telecast on June 15.

A bench of justices A M Khanwilkar and Sanjiv Khanna, had on September 25 reserved its verdict on the plea of Devgan who had moved the top court through lawyer Mrinal Bharti and stated that it was a slip of tongue and he had already expressed regret for the ''inadvertent" error.

The judgment would be pronounced by Justice Khanna at 10.30 AM on Monday on the plea of Devgan.

Senior lawyer Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Devgan, had told the apex court that "none of the FIRs said that public order was being disturbed". Moreover, he had already expressed regret over the issue.

Earlier, the top court had granted protection to Devgan from any coercive action in connection with the FIRs.

After that, the apex court has been extending the protection from any coercive action to the journalist.

Several FIRs have been lodged against Devgan in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana for using a derogatory term for the Sufi saint in the news debate show called ''''Aar Paar'''' on his channel on June 15.

Devgan, in his plea, sought quashing of the FIRs, stay on the investigation and protection from any coercive action for his alleged comments against the sufi saint.

However, he later tweeted an apology saying that he was actually referring to Muslim ruler Alauddin Khilji and inadvertently ended up naming Chisti.

The apex court, while granting interim relief to Devgan, had also stayed the probe in the cases related to the telecast against the journalist.

The journalist has said the plea concerned his life and liberty.

"In a well-orchestrated manner, the petitioner has been made a victim of country-wide filing of false and baseless criminal complaint and FIRs on the one hand, and on the other hand, petitioner, his family and his crew has been abused unabashedly on social media and by personal messages by unknown persons.

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"The petitioner has also received several death threats from various anti-social elements," the plea submitted.

It said that Devgan was holding a discussion on a petition filed before the top court on his show on June 15 on the issue of the Places of Worship Special Provisions Act.

"During the course of the live heated discussion one of the panelists quoted ''Chisti'' (Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti) and inadvertently, the petitioner (Devgan) who wanted to refer to the historical figure Khilji(Alauddin Khilji) as a marauder, mentioned the name ''Chisti''," the plea submitted.

"That immediately on realising his inadvertent slip of tongue during the heated debate in his show, the petitioner tendered a clarification and clarified that the name "Chisti'' was mentioned by error and inadvertently," it said.

Devgan tweeted the clarification on his personal Twitter account on the intervening night of June 16-17. The channel also carried a video clarification featuring the journalist, the plea said.

One of the FIRs was lodged at Pydhonie police station in Mumbai against Devgan for allegedly hurting religious sentiments by referring to Chisti in derogatory terms in the TV programme on the complaint of Arif Razvi, general secretary of the Raza Academy.

PTI