New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday extended till March 17 the interim bail granted to Congress leader Pawan Khera in a case related to alleged objectionable remarks he made against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Assam Police had arrested Khera in the case.
A three-judge bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala adjourned the hearing to March 17 as it had run out of time. The bench also pointed out that the replies of Uttar Pradesh and Assam were not on record and it will hear the plea after the Holi vacation. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Assam government, told the bench that the state has filed the reply to the petition of Khera and would like to argue the case whenever the court deems it fit to hear.
The court made clear that the interim bail granted to Khera will be extended till March 17 when it will hear the matter. Earlier, on February 27, the court had extended the protection to the Congress spokesperson till Friday. Khera was arrested from the Delhi airport after he was de-boarded from a plane that was supposed to take him to Raipur in connection with his alleged remarks against Modi made at a press conference in Mumbai on February 17.
The Congress leader obtained bail from a magisterial court here on February 23 after the CJI-led bench granted him the interim bail during an urgent hearing earlier in the day. "In order to enable the petitioner (Khera) to apply for regular bail before the jurisdictional court, upon the FIRs being transferred to one jurisdiction, we direct that the petitioner shall be released on interim bail by the court of the competent magistrate at Delhi where he is to be produced this evening," the apex court had said.
"The above order shall remain in operation till February 28," it had said. The apex court, which had listed the matter for hearing on February 27, had issued notices to Assam and Uttar Pradesh, seeking their responses to Khera's plea for transferring and clubbing together three separate FIRs lodged against him in Assam and in Uttar Pradesh cities of Lucknow and Varanasi. After dictating the order, the CJI had apparently expressed his displeasure with the Congress leader's remarks and observed: "We have protected you (Khera), but there has to be some level of discourse."
Senior lawyer A M Singhvi, appearing for Khera, had said the words taken at their face value, as reflected in the FIRs, do not establish any offence punishable under the sections invoked. Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the state of Assam, had played the offending video in the court and claimed that Khera's statement on Modi was a "deliberate attempt to denigrate a constitutional functionary". Singhvi, however, had also told the apex court that Khera had already apologised for his remarks and the offences alleged against him in the cases did not require arrest. (PTI)
