Supreme Court Extends Protection From Arrest Of Pawan Khera Till March 17, Assam Police Files Counter Affidavit
|Solicitor General Tushar Mehta today submitted before the Supreme Court that a counter affidavit on behalf of the Assam Police has been filed.
“Have you filed the counter?” asked a Bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha and Justice JB Pardiwala.
“We have filed the counter. They (petitioner) have the copy. We will file in the Registry also,” said Solicitor General Mehta, appearing on behalf of the Assam Police.
The Court extended the interim protection against arrest till March 17, on a request being made by Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who represented Khera.
“Interim Order to continue,” ordered the Court while posting the matter for further hearing on March 17.
On Monday, the Supreme Court extended till March 3 the interim bail granted to the Congress leader Pawan after various FIRs were lodged for deliberately botching up the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a press conference.
During that hearing, Solicitor General appearing for Assam said that the state police wanted to file its reply. Additional Advocate General Garima Prasad, appearing for Uttar Pradesh also said that she will also be filing the response in the matter.
On February 23, a Bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice MR Shah and Justice PS Narasimha granted interim bail on Khera's plea, which he moved immediately after being arrested by the Assam Police.
The Court ordered, "In order to protect the petitioner until he applies for regular bail before the jurisdictional court in relation to all FIRs, we direct till next date of listing the petitioner shall be released on interim bail".
Khera was arrested by the Assam Police while he was boarding a plane for Chattisgarh's Raipur from the Delhi Airport. On February 17, during a press conference, Khera botched up PM Narendra Modi's name while demanding a probe by a joint parliamentary committee into the Adani-Hindenburg report.
"If Narasimha Rao could form a JPC, if Atal Bihari Vajpayee could form a JPC, then what problem does Narendra 'Gautam Das'...sorry 'Damodardas' Modi have?" Khera had said.
Cause Title- Pawan Khera v State of Assam & Anr.