The Supreme Court on February 9 stayed the arrest of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor along with six journalists who were accused of putting out "misleading" tweets on the Republic Day violence in New Delhi.
A bench headed by the Chief Justice of India SA Bobde passed the order giving them protection from arrest, LiveLaw said in a report.
The order was passed along with a notice on several writ petitions filed by the accused. The Supreme Court has also sought a response from the Centre. The bench will hear the petitions after two weeks.
During the hearing, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Tharoor, requested protection from coercive action as well. While the Bench, also comprising of Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, was reluctant, Sibal argued that the accused could be arrested by police from different states.
"Mr Mehta, are you going to arrest these people? The matter is covered as far as we are concerned. Are you going to arrest them till we hear you?," CJI Bobde asked the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, LiveLaw reported.
Earlier, the Delhi Police had filed FIR against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and journalists Rajdeep Sardesai, Mrinal Pande, Zafar Agha, Paresh Nath, Vinod K Jose and Anant Nath for allegedly misleading the public over the death of a protestor during the Republic Day violence in New Delhi.
A case against Tharoor was also filed in Noida, and four FIRs were registered against him in Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal, Hoshangabad, Multai and Betul, the report said.