New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended Amish Devgan’s protection from coercive action. It said the interim order staying investigation against the journalist for multiple FIRs filed against him will continue. An FIR was lodged against Amish Devgan for his remarks against Sufi Saint Moinuddin Chishti.
Acceding to the request of Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing on behalf of Devgan, a bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and Sanjiv Khanna informed the Counsels that the interim orders would continue till the next date of hearing.
On June 26, the Supreme Court had stayed investigation and coercive action against News18 anchor Amish Devgan on the multiple FIRs registered against him over his remarks on Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti till the next date of hearing.
A vacation bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and Sanjiv Khanna had issued notice on his writ petition seeking quashing of the FIRs and asked him to implead all the defacto complainants.
Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Devgan, had submitted that his client had made an “inadvertent error” during his show for which he later issued public apology. Lodging of FIRs against the journalist for a “slip of tongue” is unjust and amounts to undue harassment, he submitted.
“If this starts happening, where people are dealt with for slip of the tongue, what will happen? Errors people make. He has also profusely apologised,” stated Luthra.
Multiple FIRs had been registered in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Telangana against Amish Devgan following his remarks against the Sufi saint.
While hosting a debate on June 15 on PIL’s regarding the Place of Worship Special Provision Act on his show ‘Aar Par’, Amish had called Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, better known as Khwaja Ghareeb Nawaz, an “attacker” and “looter”. Consequently, several police complaints and FIRs were registered against the anchor across the country.
Later Devgan apologised for his remark calling it an “inadvertent error”.