Maharashtra Govt Opposes ‘Fugitive’ Zakir Naik’s Plea to Club Multiple FIRs

By OB Bureau On Oct 16, 2024

New Delhi: Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta objected to the maintainability of Islamic preacher Zakir Naik’s 2013 writ petition in Supreme Court, seeking the clubbing of multiple FIRs registered against him in Maharashtra and Karnataka under section 153A of IPC, which deals with hate speech.

Mehta, appearing for Maharashtra government, argued that Naik can’t seek remedy under Article 32 of the Constitution.

“I would wish to raise a preliminary contention that a person who has been declared a fugitive by the court of law, can he maintain Article 32 petition?” Mehta questioned.

A bench of Justice Abhay Oka, Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Justice Augustine George Masih asked the State to file a counter affidavit to raise the objection.

“Counter is ready, you raise that objection… You are saying that you are raising objections regarding maintainability. Raise that objection by filing a counter. We will look into it,” Justice Oka said.

During Wednesday’s hearing, the bench inquired about the status of cases against Naik.

Senior advocate Aditya Sondhi, appearing for Naik, said there are 43 cases against him.

Mehta then mentioned that he was under the impression that Naik was withdrawing the petition.

Sodhi explained that he had no instruction from his client to withdraw the petition. However, if the Supreme Court bench allows, Naik may approach concerned high courts for quashing the FIRs instead of troubling the country’s top court.

Sodhi informed that four FIRs in Maharashtra and two FIRs in Karnataka are pending.

“We will keep it for hearing… we wanted to know what is the status, whether final reports are filed or not,” Justice Oka said.