Apex court to hear Taslima Nasreen's plea Tuesday

The Supreme Court will Tuesday hear self-exiled Bangladeshi author Tasleema Nasreen's plea for quashing the FIR against her for a controversial tweet criticising a meeting between Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal and cleric Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan.

A bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi agreed to hear the plea following a mention by senior counsel K.K. Venugopal seeking that the FIR against the Bangladeshi writer be quashed.

Nasreen has also sought the scrapping of Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 as "unconstitutional and void" which provides for punishment for sending offensive messages through communication services etc.

The apex court is already seized of a batch of petitions contesting the constitutional validity of the provision.

Describing the law as a draconian provision, Nasreen in her petition said that it "acts as an easy ready aid for such abuse of the legal process" and contended that it violated the Article 19(1)(a) (right to free speech) of the constitution.

The Bangladesh writer said that she was "quite distressed and shocked by the registration of a criminal case against her and believes that criminal justice system was being abused to harass, intimidate and coerce her virtually giving up her right to express her views freely and without fear".

Seeking the quashing of FIR and declaring section 66A as unconstitutional, Nasreen, in her petition, said that police in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly registered an FIR on the compliant without holding any preliminary enquiry.

Nasreen in her petition said that her tweet was in protest against Kejriwal meeting Maulana Tauqeer for seeking the latter's support in the Delhi assembly election.

She said she was dismayed over Kajriwal's meeting with the cleric, who had issued a fatwa (edict) against her for holding views advocating women's rights and in 2007 had announced a reward of Rs.5 lakh to anyone who would behead her. She said the 2007 fatwa survives even today.

Nasreen said she wanted her displeasure known over Kejriwal meeting the cleric as it amounted to conferring legitimacy to the latter by the AAP leader who is perceived as a voice of civil society.