The bench said, “We cannot use the power under Section 482 CrPC. We are not inclined to grant interim protection.”
The apex court today issued notices on a plea filed by the Director, Producer, Writer and Actor of the web series Tandav seeking for clubbing and transferring of criminal proceedings which have been initiated against them in various cities for allegedly hurting religious sentiments in the show that aired on OTT platform Amazon Prime, LiveLaw reported.
Apprehending arrest from Police departments of six states, the accused persons were not granted interim protection by the Bench comprising of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R. Subhash Reddy and MR Shah.
The bench said, “We cannot use the power under Section 482 CrPC. We are not inclined to grant interim protection,” adding that it was rejecting the prayer for quashing of the FIRs.
However, the bench clarified that the pendency of the petition in the Supreme Court will not prejudice the right of petitioners to seek bail in concerned courts.
Senior Advocates Fali Nariman, Mukul Rohatgi (for Amazon India Creative Head Aparna Purohit) Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra (for producer Himanshu Mehra, director Ali Abbas Zafar and writer Gaurav Solanki) and Senior Advocate Siddharth Agarwal (for actor Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub) represented the petitioners.
The bench was persuaded by the petitioners’ lawyers by referring to similar orders granted in ‘Arnab Goswami’ & ‘Amish Devgan’ cases. They submitted that as the petitioners will have to file bail applications in different districts in different states, refusal of interim protection will lead to “havoc”.
The bench, however, was not inclined to grant the prayer. The bench also orally remarked during the hearing that religious sentiments cannot be hurt, LiveLaw reported.
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