Remark about PM Modi: Supreme Court clubs and transfers three FIRs against Pawan Khera to Uttar Pradesh

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered that the three cases registered against Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Assam after he botched up the name of Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi at a press conference, should be clubbed and transferred to Lucknow in UP [Pawan Khera vs State of Assam and ors]..A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala passed the order on a plea by Khera to club the three first information reports (FIRs) and transfer the case to one police station."We order and direct that FIRs registered in Varanasi and Assam shall stand transferred to Hazratganj police station , Lucknow. The interim protection stands extended till April 10, 2023. The petitioner will be at liberty to apply for regular bail before jurisdictional court," the Court directed..Khera was booked for offences under Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth etc.) and Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).Khera was picked up from the Delhi airport on February 23 after he had boarded a plane to Chhattisgarh's Raipur where he was headed for a meeting of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).He was deplaned and then taken by the Assam Police based on a first information report (FIR) registered against him.He moved the top court the very same day, which granted him interim protection and sought the responses of the two States to club the FIRs and transfer the case to one police station.The interim bail was later extended.The Assam and Uttar Pradesh (UP) governments later filed affidavits before the top court opposing the plea.The Assam government in its affidavit said that the apology tendered by Khera's counsel during the hearing of the case before the apex court was only a tactical one to get a favourable order, and not due to genuine remorse.The UP government stated that Khera by moving the top court is attempting to 'leapfrog' the normal procedure in a criminal case under Code of the Criminal Procedure (CrPC)..During the hearing today, Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta said that he does not have any objection to club the FIRs and requested that they be clubbed and transferred to Assam. The Court, however, said that it will transfer the case to the place where first FIR was registered and proceeded to transfer it to Lucknow.The SG said that Khera is yet to apologise for his remark and it is only his counsel, Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi who has apologised."But that is the practice of taking into record. It is the counsel who tenders the apology before the Court. See our order and that is the apology.. That is how we protected him also. Dr Singhvi stands by it," the bench said."It was not an innocous statement. We want to see who was behind the statement. How can someone stoop to this level of bringing someone's parents," the SG said.He also pointed out that the official handle of the Congress party has put out clips of the same."Even after Supreme Court order, the official handle of the party has been putting out the clips which is the first Indian political discourse and they must control to stop it," he said."We will add a bit to that effect," the CJI said..[Read order]