The Supreme Court on Friday granted protection to activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan from any coercive action in an FIR lodged against him at Rajkot in Gujarat for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of the Hindus.
The FIR was lodged by former Army personnel Jaidev Rajnikant Joshi at Rajkot alleging that Bhushan hurt religious sentiments of the Hindus by tweeting against re-telecast of Ramayana and Mahabharata serials on DD during the lockdown imposed to contain COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
A bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan and Sanjiv Khanna, in the proceedings conducted through video conferencing, issued notice to the Gujarat Police and listed the plea of Bhushan for hearing after two weeks.
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for Bhushan, sought quashing of the FIR lodged against the activist lawyer and sought interim protection against any coercive measure against him for the time being.
Bhushan had filed the plea on Thursday and it was listed before the bench on Friday.