Remarks against Valmiki community: SC to hear Salman Khan's plea after 2 weeks

The Supreme Court today decided to hear after two weeks the plea of Bollywood superstar Salman Khan seeking quashing of FIRs lodged in six states against him for his alleged derogatory remarks against 'Valmiki' community during promotion of film 'Tiger Zinda Hai'.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud asked the parties to complete pleadings in the meantime and fixed the plea of the actor for final hearing after two weeks.

The court, on April 23, had stayed the criminal proceedings and enquiries initiated on the basis of the FIRs lodged against Khan in various states.

Senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, appearing for the actor, had termed as "motivated" the complaints against the actor.

Earlier, the court had asked the lawyer to provide the details of cases lodged against Khan in states like Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Mumbai.

Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Rajasthan had said he was aware of the factual matrix of the case and would like to file a reply in the matter.

He had said that as far as case in Rajasthan was concerned, the high court was already seized of the matter and had stayed the proceedings on the FIR.

Khan had allegedly made some objectionable remarks against the community during the promotion of 'Tiger Zinda Hai' on a reality TV show and subsequently several proceedings were lodged against him under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

On December 22 last year, one of the FIRs under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was lodged in Rajasthan against the actor for allegedly using an offensive term to describe the community during the promotion of his film.

Khan had claimed that he was describing his own appearance in a dance sequence of the film.

Several FIRs have been registered in six different states including Rajasthan and Delhi.

Salman had the moved the Supreme Court with a plea seeking quashing of all the FIRs registered against him in this regard.