Supreme Court refuses to stay Sharjeel Imam's prosecution in sedition cases
New Delhi/UNI: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay prosecution of JNU student Sharjeel Imam in sedition cases registered against him in five states for his alleged inflammatory speeches during anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests.
A two-member bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and V Ramasubramanian was hearing a plea filed by Imam seeking to club all FIRs filed against him.
The Top Court was informed that governments of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh have filed their counter affidavits on Imam's plea but no responses have been filed by Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.
"We cannot pass interim orders without seeing the replies of other states," the bench said.
"Let counter affidavits be filed by Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh in 2 weeks," the bench said and listed the matter for hearing after 3 weeks.
Earlier, senior advocate Siddharth Dave, appearing for Imam, contended that the court had on May 26, issued notice to Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur & Arunachal Pradesh and Delhi seeking their respective detailed responses in the matter, which is still awaited.
Taking strong exception to Dave's assertion, the Uttar Pradesh government said it has already submitted its response to the Top Court.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said Delhi government's response is also ready and will be submitted by evening.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.