The Supreme Court Friday stayed any coercive action against News18 journalist Amish Devgan in multiple FIRs lodged in several states over his alleged defamatory statements against Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti.
A bench comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari issued notices to those who have lodged criminal cases against the journalist, and also the state governments of Rajasthan, Telangana and Maharashtra where the cases have been lodged.
Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, advocate Mrinal Bharti and AOR Vivek Jain, who appeared for Devgan, sought the relief and said that the journalist has already issued a clarification for his alleged tweet.
Errors cannot be construed as criminal offences, Luthra said.
It was alleged that the journalist in his news show on June 15 had used the term 'Lootera Chisti' for the Sufi saint, inviting reactions from the Muslim community.
One of the FIRs was lodged at Pydhonie police station in Mumbai against Devgan for allegedly hurting religious sentiments by referring to saint Chisti in derogatory terms in the TV programme on the complaint of Arif Razvi, general secretary of Raza Academy.
However, later the journalist tweeted saying that he was actually referring to Muslim ruler Alauddin Khilji and ended up naming Chisti.
The top court, which has fixed the plea for hearing in the first week of July, has ordered that till then no coercive action would be taken against Devgan.
The FIRs and complaints have also been lodged in Rajasthan and Telangana also alleging that Devgan had used word 'lootera' for the saint.
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