NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain an oral plea seeking direct cognisance of allegedly derogatory remarks made by BJP Minority Morcha leader and social media influencer Nazia Elahi Khan against Prophet Muhammad, saying complainants must first approach the police instead of bypassing the established legal process.
A vacation Bench of Justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Sheel Nagu, although, observed that the issue was “serious in nature”, but the proper course was to first file a complaint with the police and allow the investigation to proceed.
"So you file a PIL (Public Interest Litigation). Why come here? Have you filed a complaint with the police? Why don’t you have faith in the (system? The Supreme Court too is a part of the judicial system. We are only at its apex. We are here to monitor,” the court remarked amd refused to entertain the plea for urgent listing.
The Bench said if complainants began circumventing the police and lower courts to directly approach the apex court, it would create chaos. It even went on to observe that the court could not be approached as the first forum and criticised the growing trend of skipping procedures prescribed under law.
Refusing to entertain the plea, the court said, there was a system in place and we can not "short-circuit” the legal process, to hear the matter out of turn.
The bench said, it would not allow the established “system” for filing complaints to be bypassed.
The lawyer, who mentioned the plea submitted that the alleged remarks by Khan could “disturb communal harmony across the country”.
Hearing these submissions, the top court urged the lawyers not to “sensationalise sensitive matters”, and added, "we would like to say, you are a citizen of India. You know the law. You know the ramifications. Do not sensationalise these things."
“If a litigant starts short-circuiting the system, the other functionaries would simply raise their hands and do nothing. If you go to them and give them a chance to act or decide on your complaint, it would be an eye-opener for us, and we would also be able to see if these functionaries are working or not,” Justice Amanullah even remarked.
