Supreme Court Extends Stay on MP Minister Vijay Shah’s Arrest, Closes High Court Proceedings

Supreme Court Extends Stay on MP Minister Vijay Shah’s Arrest: The Supreme Court on Wednesday, May 28, extended its interim stay on the arrest of BJP minister Kunwar Vijay Shah in the case lodged by Madhya Pradesh police over his misogynistic and communal remarks directed at Colonel Sofiya Qureshi.

A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta also closed the suo motu proceedings pending before the Madhya Pradesh high court as the Supreme Court was already seized of the matter.

“Let the high court close the proceedings in view of a case here. There shall be no parallel proceedings,” the top court said in its order, according to Bar and Bench.

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Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, who had been the face of Operation Sindoor, an IAF-led counter-terror mission. As a result, on May 14, the Madhya Pradesh High Court had directed registration of an FIR under Sections 152, 196(1)(b), and 197(1)(c) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (‘BNS’). Later that night, Vijay Shah posted a video on his official Twitter account, offering a public apology, in which he referred to Colonel Qureshi as the “Nation’s sister.”

The following day, the High Court expressed dissatisfaction with the FIR and declared its intent to monitor the investigation, prompting Vijay Shah to file a second petition before the Supreme Court challenging this decision.

On May 19, the Supreme Court stayed Vijay Shah’s arrest, constituted the Special Investigation Team (‘SIT’) comprising three senior IPS officers from outside Madhya Pradesh to ensure impartiality in the probe and had stayed Vijay Shah’s arrest on the condition that he would fully cooperate with the investigation.

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In the previous hearing, Justice Kant had said the Minister’s comments amounted to “crass, thoughtless remarks”. The court had said there was no point apologising to the court merely to “wriggle out of a situation”.

Justice Kant had said the Bench viewed the video clips showing Mr. Shah making the remarks.

“Instead of leading by example, you, a public figure and a politician of experience do this most unfortunate thing,” Justice Kant hadaddressed senior advocates Maninder Singh and Vibha Dutta Makhija, who appeared for Mr. Shah.

Justice Kant had said a fair and transparent SIT investigation against a sitting Minister would be a “litmus test” for the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh government.

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