The Supreme Court on Monday clubbed and transferred three FIRs against Congress spokesman Pawan Khera to a police station in Lucknow.

A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justice P S Narasimha and Justice J B Pardiwala clubbed and transferred three FIRs to the Hazratganj Police Station in Lucknow on a plea by Pawan Khera seeking the clubbing and transfer of three FIRs registered in Assam, Varanasi and Lucknow to the jurisdiction of one police station.

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“We order and direct that FIRs registered in Varanasi and Assam shall stand transferred to Hazratganj police station, Lucknow. The interim protection stands extended till April 10, 2023. The petitioner will be at liberty to apply for regular bail before jurisdictional court,” the Court ordered.

The three FIRs were registered against Pawan Khera in Lucknow, Varanasi and Assam after he distorted the middle name of the Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas  Modi.

During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that he does not have any objection to club the FIRs and requested that they be clubbed and transferred to Assam.

The court, however, said that it will transfer the case to the place where the first FIR was registered and proceeded to transfer it to Lucknow.

The Solicitor General said that Pawan Khera is yet to apologise for his remark and it is only senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for Khera, had apologised.

 “But that is the practice of taking into record. It is the counsel who tenders the apology before the Court. See our order and that is the apology. That is how we protected him also. Singhvi stands by it,” the bench said.

“It was not an innocuous statement. We want to see who was behind the statement. How can someone stoop to this level of bringing someone’s parents,” the Solicitor General said. He also pointed out that the official handle of the Congress party has put out clips of the same.

“Even after Supreme Court order, the official handle of the party has been putting out the clips which are the first Indian political discourse and they must control to stop it,” he said.

“We will add a bit to that effect,” the CJI Chandrachud said.

Khera was booked for offences under Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth etc.) and Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Khera was picked up by Assam Police from  Delhi airport on February 23 after he had boarded a plane to  Raipur (Chhattisgarh) where he was headed for a meeting of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).

He was deplaned and then taken by the Assam Police based on a first information report (FIR) registered against him.

Khera moved the top court the very same day, which granted him interim protection and sought the responses of the two States to club the FIRs and transfer the case to one police station. The interim bail was later extended.