Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, July 19: The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted protection from arrest to former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma till the next date of hearing in various first information reports (FIRs) registered against her in different parts of the country.
In response to Sharma’s request to have the FIRs quashed or, alternatively, to have multiple FIRs combined and sent to Delhi, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala issued notices to states like Delhi, West Bengal, and Maharashtra on her plea and, as an interim measure, granted her protection from arrest.
“This matter be listed on August 10, 2022. Copies of main writ be also forwarded along with notice to respondents. Serve through dasti notice and through standing counsel. Meanwhile, as an interim measure it is directed that no coercive shall be taken against Nupur Sharma,” the bench ordered.
The Court announced that it would investigate the possibility of letting Sharma ask one of the High Courts to quash all FIRs.
In this regard, the Court took notice of the fact that a new FIR had been filed against her in West Bengal, and that the Kolkata Police had issued a lookout circular that would result in an immediate arrest and a denial of relief if the High Court was not contacted.
Because of these occurrences, the court declared that it would consider how to give the petitioner access to an alternative remedy.
In order to investigate the possibility of permitting Sharma to file a single High Court petition to contest all FIRs, the Court sent a notice to the States of West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra, and Telangana.
“In order to explore such modality let notice be issued to respondents,” the Court said.
