NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday asked suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma to apologise to the nation over her controversial remarks on the Prophet in a TV show and held her responsible for a killing in Udaipur early this week.
A vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and Jamshed B Pardiwala held her "single-handedly responsible for igniting emotions across the country" and refused to provide relief sought by her to club the different FIRs filed in different states.
Justice Kant, presiding over the Bench, told her senior counsel Maninder Singh, “No Mr Singh, the conscience of the court is not satisfied. We must mould the law accordingly.”
Singh said she had tendered a written apology, but Justice Kant remarked that “she was too late to withdraw” and added it was done “conditionally.
On the lawyer stating that she was facing a threat to life and has to hop from one court to another, Justice Surya Kant, who spoke mostly on behalf of the Bench, shot back: "She has a threat or she has become security threat? The way she has ignited emotions across the country..."
The court was also critical of Delhi Police's response, asking: "What has Delhi Police done? Don't make us open our mouth."
Justice Kant dismissed her senior lawyer's contention that Delhi Police was the first to file an FIR after she made the comment on a news channel, noting that she was neither arrested nor interrogated.
"What was the TV debate about? Only to fan an agenda? Why did they choose a sub judice topic? What if she is the spokesperson of a ruling party? She thinks she has back-up of power and can make the statement without respect for the law of the land?
"We saw the debate on how she was incited. But the way she said all this and later says she is a lawyer. It is shameful.....She should have gone to the TV and apologised to the nation," Justice Surya Kant said.
The debate was on the Varanasi-based Gyanvati Mosque issue on May 27. Criticising the TV debate, Justice Kant asked why it chose a sub judice topic. When told that her remarks on the Prophet were in response to a question by the anchor, the judge said there should have been a case against the host in that case.
Referring to her approaching the Supreme Court directly, the judge said: “The petition smacks of her arrogance, that the magistrates of the country are too small for her.”
"When you file FIRs against others, they are immediately arrested, but when it is against you, nobody has dared to touch you," Justice Surya Kant said.
The Mumbai Police team which came to Delhi to question her on June 17 couldn't find her since she had become untraceable, he said.
The official Twitter handle of the Congress termed the Supreme Court's remarks as a slap in the face of the BJP government. On the court asking Nupur Sharma to apologise, the Congress asked whether the BJP president, the Union home minister and Prime Minister themselves owe an "apology to the nation for stoking communal hatred constantly."
