The Delhi High Court on Friday asked the trial court to defer the hearing on the charges against Delhi law minister Kapil Mishra over his alleged inflammatory remarks ahead of the 2020 assembly polls.
The direction was issued by a bench of Justice Ravinder Dudeja on Thursday, after senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for Mishra, informed the court that the Delhi Police, in its supplementary chargesheet, had included files received from platform X containing information about Mishra’s account, but the files were in a coded, incomprehensible format.
Jethmalani urged the court to stay the trial court proceedings, contending that the matter was listed before the trial court for arguments on the charge on Friday, and it was essential for the prosecution first to provide a readable version of the documents before the proceedings could begin.
He further submitted that his appeal against the city court’s March 7 order, which refused to quash the proceedings and the summons issued to him for making “objectionable statements” and violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), would become infructuous if the trial court proceeded ahead.
Considering the contentions, the court requested the trial court to postpone the hearing to a date after the one set by the high court, and scheduled the next hearing for October 13.
“Since no time is left, it is not possible to hear and dispose of the petition today. The learned trial court is requested to defer the hearing on charge to a date subsequent to the date fixed by this court,” the court said in its order.
The proceedings against Mishra had originated from a first information report (FIR) registered on January 24, 2020, accusing Mishra of violating the model code of conduct (MCC) and the Representation of the People (RP) Act after he allegedly posted inflammatory content on social media.
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On March 7, the trial court had refused to quash the proceedings, saying that Mishra’s alleged remarks appeared to be “a brazen attempt to promote enmity on the grounds of religion”.
In his petition before the high court, Mishra had asserted that he, in his remarks, had not referred to any caste, community, or religion but had merely mentioned Pakistan and Shaheen Bagh in southeast Delhi.
It went on to add that the alleged tweets neither intended to promote feelings of enmity or hatred, such statements did not lead to anything during the “said period” and such tweets were made to condemn only the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) agitation. The purpose of the tweets during the election process, the petition said, was to criticise anti-social, anti-national elements intending to spoil the atmosphere under the anti-CAA movement.
Earlier, the Delhi police had opposed the petition, asserting that there was no mention of CAA in Mishra’s tweets and the same were made with an intent to promote hatred against two religious communities.
On March 18, the high court refused to stay the trial court proceedings, saying that its continuation would not cause any prejudice.