SC orders listing of Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair's plea against FIRs

New Delhi: Alt News co-founder Mohd Zubair on Monday sought an urgent listing of his plea in the Supreme Court seeking quashing of FIRs lodged against him in several districts of Uttar Pradesh for allegedly outraging religious feelings.

A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana took note of the submissions of Zubair's lawyer Vrinda Grover that the petitioner, a fact checker and journalist, has been facing a slew of FIRs and his plea needed an urgent hearing.

“List it before Justice DY Chandrachud. You can mention before that bench,” said the bench.  The fresh plea of Zubair has also challenged the constitution of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) by the Uttar Pradesh government to probe the six cases.

The plea said all the six FIRs filed in Uttar Pradesh which have been transferred to the SIT for investigation is the subject matter of the FIR which is being probed by the Delhi Police special cell.

Separate FIRs have been lodged against Zubair in Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar, and Hathras districts on charges of allegedly hurting religious feelings, making sarcastic remarks on news anchors, disrespecting Hindu gods, and inflammatory posts.