The Allahabad high court on Friday stayed till January 6 the arrest of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair in relation to an FIR accusing him of promoting enmity among religious groups.
The court also directed him not to travel abroad.
The FIR was lodged last month following a complaint by an associate of controversial priest Yati Narsinghanand.
In her complaint, general secretary of Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati Trust Udita Tyagi claimed Zubair posted a video clip of an old programme of Narsinghanand on October 3 with the intent to provoke violence by Muslims against him.
It was further alleged that Zubair posted edited clips of the priest on X, containing Narsinghanand's alleged incendiary remarks on Prophet Muhammad to incite radical sentiments against the controversial priest.
Hearing the matter, a bench of justices Siddhartha Varma and Nalin Kumar Srivastava observed, "We are tentatively of the view that even though from the reading of the FIR one could make out that the offence under section 196 BNS up to a large extent was being made out.
"However, from the allegations made in the FIR, any offence under section 152 BNS was being made out wherein the acts of the petitioner would excite people to commit offences of secession, armed rebellion, subversive activities or get encouraged to get feelings of separatist activities is to be seen. Matter thus requires consideration."
The bench added: "However, since the affidavits between the parties have yet not been exchanged, and the learned Additional Advocate General has yet to make submissions with regard to what would be 'separatist activity', we consider it appropriate to grant the state three weeks' time to file a detailed counter affidavit."
The FIR was lodged by Ghaziabad police last month under sections 196 (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 228 (fabricating false evidence), 299 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 356(3) (defamation) and 351(2) (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The court further said, "However, looking into the criminal antecedents of the petitioner and after looking into the order passed by the Supreme Court in Writ Petition (Criminal) No.279 of 2022 (Mohammed Zubair vs. State of NCT of Delhi & Others) on July 20, 2022 by which the petitioner therein had been granted bail in many of the criminal cases against him, we consider that the petitioner till the next date of listing be not arrested."
"However, he will cooperate in the investigation and since the learned counsel for the petitioner has given his undertaking that he would not go out of the country, we also provide that the petitioner shall not go out of the country. He may surrender his passport with the Commissioner of Police at Ghaziabad," the court added.
Zubair had moved the high court, requesting quashing the FIR and protection from coercive action. In his plea, he stated that his post did not call for violence against Narsinghanand.
Rather, he had merely alerted the police authorities about Narsinghanand's actions and sought action according to law, and this could not amount to promoting disharmony or ill-will between two classes of people.
In addition to it, he also challenged the invocation of the defamation provision under the BNS on the grounds that seeking action against Narsinghanand by sharing his own videos which are already in public domain, cannot amount to defamation.
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