SC questions FIR against Cong MP Pratapgarhi

At the request of the Gujarat Government counsel, the hearing was deferred by three weeks. “Please apply your mind to the poem. After all, creativity is important,” Justice Oka added.

Referring to the Gujarat High Court’s order that rejected Pratapgarhi’s petition to quash the FIR, senior counsel Kapil Sibal, speaking on behalf of the petitioner, asserted, “The judge has done violence to the law. That is my concern.” The Supreme Court had earlier stayed the criminal proceedings against Pratapgarhi on January 21 and issued notices to the Gujarat Government and complainant Kishanbhai Deepakbhai Nanda regarding his appeal.

Pratapgarhi, the national chairman of the Congress minority cell, had challenged the January 17 order dismissing his petition on the grounds that the investigation was still in its infancy. On January 3, he was booked for allegedly circulating the provocative song during a mass marriage function in Jamnagar, Gujarat, under Sections 196 (promoting enmity between different groups on the basis of religion, race, etc.) and 197 (imputations prejudicial to national integration) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

A 46-second video clip uploaded by Pratapgarhi on X showed flower petals showering on him as he walked, with a background song whose lyrics the FIR alleged were provocative, detrimental to national unity and hurtful to religious sentiments. In his plea, Pratapgarhi argued that the recited poem carries “a message of love and non-violence” and claimed that the FIR was filed with malicious intent as a tool to harass him.