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Synopsis

A Supreme Court bench of Justices Chandrachud and Bopanna today extended the interim bail granted to Mohammed Zubair, an accused in a case concerning derogatory comment he allegedly made against persons of a religious fold.   

Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for Uttar Pradesh Police and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the State of Uttar Pradesh sought time for filing a counter affidavit detailing status report in the case(s).

Colin Gonsalves, Senior Advocate, appearing for Zubair stated that the interim bail granted to Zubair earlier was to end today.

In this light, Court granted 4 weeks to the state to file the counter and further extended the protection of interim bail.

The court was hearing a plea by the Alt News co-founder challenging Allahabad High Court’s order, refusing to quash the First Information Report (FIR) lodged against him over his tweets in which he had allegedly called one Bajrang Muni a 'hate monger' and insulted Yati Narsinghanand and Anand Swaroop.

On the last date of hearing, a vacation bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari had granted interim bail to Zubair in the case. The bench, had further asked Zubair not to post any further tweets or tamper with evidence. Moreover, it also clarified that this order pertains only to the Sitapur case and not any other case. On July, 8, 2022 a local court in Sitapur rejected Zubair's bail plea in this case. 

SG Mehta, on the last date of hearing, had informed the court that police are not investigating just one tweet, but Zubair's overall conduct. 

The SG had objected to the plea by stating that many facts have been wilfully suppressed before the court.

He submitted that a court in Sitapur had dismissed his bail plea in the case in the morning of July 7, however, in an affidavit filed in the evening, it was not revealed. SG argued that the court should not tolerate such a conduct. He further informed the court that the order refusing to grant bail to Zubair might have been set aside by the court without even being challenged.