Supreme Court adjourns Shaheen Bagh hearing till Monday to create no 'influence' on Delhi polls

Arguing the postponement, petitioner Nand Kishore, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a former Delhi MLA, said this means the case will not be heard before the Delhi polls.

Justice SK Kaul responded to Kishore wittily saying, "Cat is out of the bag.."

"That is exactly why we are saying 'come on Monday'. Why should we influence it (the election)? We understand the problem and we have to see how to resolve it. We will take it up on Monday. We will be in a better position by then," a two-judge bench consisting of Justice Kaul and KM Joseph said as quoted by NDTV.

Hundreds of Muslim women and men are camped for more than a month in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, blocking roads, to protest against the contentious CAA which aims to grant citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi but not Muslim refugees who came to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh before 2015.

The Shaheen Bagh issue was repeatedly raised by the BJP in the campaign for the Delhi assembly elections which is scheduled to be held on Feb 8.

Union Home Minister and BJP's main campaigner Amit Shah had urged people to "press the button (of BJP) on voting machine so hard that Shaheen Bagh gets an electrical shock."

Union Minister Giriraj Singh courted a row a day ago by saying Delhi's Shaheen Bagh has become the breeding ground for suicide bombers.

Singh tweeted a video where several Muslim women are seen raising slogans. The Minister said in the tweet, "This Shaheen Bagh is not just a protest but the breeding ground of suicide bombers. Conspiracy against country is being made in the national capital."

Union Minister Anurag Thakur was banned from campaigning for 72 hours by the Election Commission (EC) for leading people to chant "shoot the traitors" in reference to the Shaheen Bagh protestors.

Parvesh Verma, a BJP MP from West Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, had said the protestors at Shaheen Bagh will enter people's houses and rape women.

Referring to the dark days of ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits from Jammu and Kashmir, Verma had said, "These people had raped Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu and Kashmir... Now they have come to Delhi. They will enter the houses of Delhi and rape daughters, sisters. People of Delhi must keep all these things in mind because Narendra Modi and Amit Shah will not be there to save them at that time." 

He was banned from campaigning by the EC for 96 hours.

Responding to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by advocate and social activist Amit Sahni, the Delhi High Court last month had asked police to clear the blocked route in Shaheen Bagh through "persuasion" and not by "force".