The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Uttar Pradesh police not to take any coercive steps against noted author Taslima Nasreen following an FIR registered against her in Bareilly on a post she wrote on social networking site Twitter.
The bench of Justices BS Chauhan and SA Bobde issued notice to the UP Police on a petition by Nasreen who apprehended that the FIR was a tool to make her appear in Bareilly where a fatwa against her issued by Deoband Muslim cleric in 2007 was still active. Nasreen’s tweet mentioned the meeting held by Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal with this Muslim cleric Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan prior to the Delhi elections.
The author’s counsel, senior advocate KK Venugopal even demanded for quashing of the FIR against her which the court turned down. Venugopal felt that without conducting a preliminary enquiry, the police lodged FIR based on a newspaper report and made out a case under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act besides other IPC provisions.
The court decided to hear the petition along with similar petitions pending in Court on the validity of Section 66A of IT Act listed for hearing on January 6.