Supreme Court on February 9 barred any agency from arresting Congress MP Shashi Tharoor & six journalists in cases relating to their tweets in connection with the Republic Day tractor rally violence in Delhi. The cases will be taken up for hearing two weeks later, the court said. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Delhi police, opposed any relief & wanted the case to be adjourned to February 10.
Defence counsel Kapil Sibal sought an order saying \"no coercive action till the Supreme Court takes up the case\". \"We are issuing notice...nothing is going to happen,\" the three-judge bench of Chief Justice Sharad A Bobde & Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian said. It was hearing petitions filed by Tharoor, along with those of journalists Rajdeep Sardesai, Mrinal Pande, Zafar Agha, Vinod K Jose, Paresh Nath, & Anant Nath, seeking the quashing of police cases against them. All were charged for their tweets under laws related to sedition, promotion of enmity, and criminal conspiracy.
