Supreme Court: The bench of Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala, JJ has, in a relief to politician and lawyer Nupur Sharma, has transferred all the FIRs filed against her in Prophet Remark case to the IFSO Unit of the Delhi Police for the purpose of investigation.
The Court also clarified that the directions in the present order will also extend to any other FIRs/complaints which may be registered/entertained against Nupur Sharma in future in respect of the same subject matter. Should such an eventuality arise, the investigation of those FIRs/complaints shall also stand transferred to the IFSO Unit of the Delhi Police for the purpose of investigation.
When it was urged before the Court that the nature of the case is such that a specialized and specific approach is necessary and it would be appropriate to form an SIT to collectively investigate the various FIRs, the Court observed that since the IFSO Unit of Delhi Police is itself a specialized agency, it will be enough, at this stage, to direct the IFSO Unit to investigate all the FIRs/complaints. The IFSO Unit of the Delhi Police shall be at liberty to collect and gather any information from the State Agencies if so required, for the purpose of conducting a thorough investigation and taking it to its logical conclusion.
The Court also extended the interim directions issued by it on 7 19.07.2022 till further orders. It had directed that no coercive action shall be taken against Nupur Sharma pursuant to the impugned FIR(s)/complaint(s) or the FIR(s)/complaint(s) which may be registered/entertained in the future pertaining to the telecast dated 26.05.2022 on Times Now.
Nupur Sharma, who has been accused of hurting religious feelings, was the National spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party until June 2022 after which she was suspended from the party due to controversial comments about the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his third wife.
[N.V. Sharma v. Union of India, 2022 SCC OnLine SC 1003, order dated 10.08.2022]
For Petitioner(s) Mr. Maninder Singh, Sr. Adv. Mr. ANS Nandkarni, Sr. Adv. Ms. Rachitta Rai, AOR Mr. Pandey Sangeet Rai, Adv. Mr. Manan Popli, Adv. Mr. Shaunak Kashyap, Adv. Mr. Vivek Kadyan, Adv. Ms. Deepti Arya, Adv. Mr. Prabhas Bajaj, Adv. Mr. Santosh Salvador, Adv.
For Respondent(s) Mr. Tushar Mehta, S.G. Ms. Garima Prasad, AAG Mr. Rahul Chitnis, Adv. Mr. Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Adv. Mr. Chirag Shah, Adv. Mr. Utsav Trivedi, Adv. Mr. Abhikalp Pratap Singh, Adv. Mr. Aaditya A. Pande, Adv. Mr. Geo Joseph, Adv. Ms. Shwetal Shepal, Adv. Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR Mr. Sachin Patil, AOR Ms. Taruna Ardhendumauli Prasad, AOR Mr. Amritesh Raj, Adv. Ms. Shreya Srivastava, Adv. Mr. Ashish Madaan, Adv. Ms. Ananya Sahu, Adv. Ms. Ruchira Goel, AOR Mr. Shantanu Singh, Adv. Mr. Ravi Sehgal, Adv. Dr. Menaka Guruswamy, Sr. Adv. Mr. Suhaan Mukerji, Adv. Mr. Abhishek Manchanda, Adv. Mr. Sayandeep Pahari, Adv. Mr. Vishal Prasad, Adv. Mr. Yash S. Vijay, Adv. Mr. Utkarsh Pratap, Adv. Mr. Tanmay Sinha, Adv. M/S. PLR Chambers and Co., AOR Mr. Shubanshu Padhi, Adv. Mr. Ashish Yadav, Adv. Mr. Vishal Bansal, Adv. Ms. Rajeshwari Shanker, Adv. Mr. S. Udaya Kumar Sagar, Adv. Ms. Bina Madhavan, Adv. Mr. Sweena Nair, Adv. Mr. Shuvodeep Roy, AOR Mr. Arnab Singh Dev, Adv.
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