Supreme Court refuses to quash criminal case against Congress leader Pawan Khera for bungling PM Modi's name

The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to quash the criminal case registered against Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera for botching up the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a press conference. [Pawan Khera v. State of Uttar Pradesh and anr].A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta noted Khera's repeated apologies in other defamation matters, and said an offence cannot be wished away.Justice Gavai during the brief hearing today remarked, "Anyways now you go on apologising", with Justice Mehta weighing in saying, "Trying to wish away the offence".When Khera's counsel, Senior Advocate Salman Khurshid sought time to file a rejoinder, the bench said it was not inclined to entertain the matter.Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the State of Uttar Pradesh, submitted that with the chargesheet ready, the trial must proceed..The Supreme Court had in October 2023 sought the response of the Uttar Pradesh government on the present plea. The Allahabad High Court had on August 17 dismissed Khera's plea, leading to the appeal before the apex court.At a press conference held in February last year, Khera, while demanding a joint parliamentary probe into the Adani-Hindenburg row, had said,"If Narasimha Rao could form a JPC (Joint Parliamentary Committee), if Atal Bihari Vajpayee could form a JPC, then what problem does Narendra Gautam Das...sorry Damodardas Modi have?" he had said.He had later appeared to confirm the middle name of PM Modi with a colleague. The BJP alleged that Khera deliberately flubbed the name..Khera was later picked up by the Police from the Delhi airport on February 23 last year 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 in the State.He then moved the Supreme Court which granted him interim protection and ordered that the three cases registered against him in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Assam should be clubbed and transferred to Lucknow.He had later moved the Allahabad High Court to quash the FIRs. The High Court while dismissing the said plea had observed the evidence has to be evaluated during trial.