Guwahati: The interim bail granted to Mohammad Zubair, a co-founder of Alt News, in the case brought by the Uttar Pradesh Police in Sitapur was extended by the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
On September 7, a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna scheduled the case for hearing and gave the Uttar Pradesh government four weeks to respond to Zubair’s petition.
According to ANI, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju pleaded for more time to submit an affidavit in response to Zubair’s request on behalf of the Uttar Pradesh government.
Zubair’s temporary bail, according to senior attorney Colin Gonsalves, who is representing him, is set to expire today after only being granted for five days.
The bench responded by saying that it would maintain Zubair’s temporary bail.
“State requests further time to submit a counter-affidavit. Within four weeks, a reply must be submitted, and two weeks later, a rebuttal. The Sitapur FIR case would still be subject to interim bail. a list to be disposed of in full on September 7, 2022, ” the bench stated in its order as per the report of ANI.
Zubair has appealed the Allahabad High Court’s decision to uphold a FIR that the Uttar Pradesh police in Sitapur had filed against him after he reportedly dubbed three Hindu seers “hate mongers” in a tweet.
The highest court last week granted him interim bail in the Sitapur FIR against him for a period of five days.
The top court made it quite clear that the interim bail judgement solely applied to the Sitapur FIR against Zubair and had nothing to do with the Delhi case.