New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday told the Supreme Court that closure reports have been filed in three FIRs which were lodged in connection with the web series 'Tandav' for allegedly hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus.
The apex court was hearing the pleas filed by director of the web series Ali Abbas Zafar, producer Himanshu Mehra, actor Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub and others seeking clubbing and transfer of the FIRs lodged in different states. The matter came up for hearing before a bench of Justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan.
The counsel appearing for Uttar Pradesh told the bench that three FIRs were lodged in the state. "In all three, we have filed closure reports. The status report is on record," the counsel said. Additional Solicitor General S V Raju told the bench that an FIR was lodged in Delhi but it was transferred to Uttar Pradesh.
"Nothing survives as far as we are concerned. It has become infructuous as far as we are concerned. We are not doing any investigation," he said. The counsel appearing for Maharashtra said an FIR registered at Ghatkopar in Mumbai was also transferred to Uttar Pradesh. The lawyer appearing for Madhya Pradesh sought three weeks to file a status report on the matter.
"The counsel appearing on behalf of state of Uttar Pradesh submits that in respect of all the FIRs registered in state of Uttar Pradesh as well as transferred to the state of Uttar Pradesh, closure reports have already been filed. In that view of the matter, the grievance of the petitioners in so far as the said FIRs are concerned no more survives," the bench noted.
Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, appearing for one of the petitioners, said he be allowed to implead Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh as FIRs were also stated to have been lodged there. The top court granted leave to implead Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh as party respondents and posted the matter for hearing after three weeks.
In January 2021, the top court had declined to grant interim protection from coercive action to Zafar and others seeking quashing of the FIRs against them for allegedly hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus and sought responses from states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and others on their pleas. It had then said the petitioners may seek bail from the courts concerned.
At least three FIRs were lodged against the makers and artists of 'Tandav' in Uttar Pradesh - in Lucknow, Greater Noida and Shahjahanpur - over alleged inappropriate depiction of UP police personnel, deities, and adverse portrayal of a character playing the role of the prime minister in the show.
Similar FIRs have been lodged against people associated with the making and airing of the web series in states like Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka. 'Tandav', a nine-episode political thriller starring Bollywood A-listers Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia and Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, was streamed on Amazon Prime Video.
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