Overview

• The apex court halted all coercive measures against Wazahat Khan until July 14 on his plea to merge multiple FIRs.
• A bench of Justices K.V. Viswanathan and N. Kotiswar Singh stayed his arrests in cases registered outside West Bengal over alleged hate speech.
• Notices were issued to the Centre and the states of Assam, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Delhi and Haryana to address Khan’s request for consolidation.
• Khan, who had filed the complaint that led to influencer Sharmistha Panoli’s arrest, was detained by Kolkata Police on June 9 over tweets accused of inciting religious enmity.
• Panoli, a law student arrested on May 30 for alleged communal remarks in a social media video, secured interim bail from the Calcutta High Court on June 5.