SC halts NBW against cleric Tauqeer Raza Khan

New Delhi: In a relief to prominent Muslim cleric, Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan, the Supreme Court has granted an interim stay on the execution of the non-bailable warrant issued against him in the 2010 Bareilly communal riots case.

On March 2, 2010, riots had broken out in the Uttar Pradesh town over a religious procession route. “Issue notice limited to the impugned order having been passed without assigning any reason. In the meanwhile, there shall be stay of operation of the impugned order,” a bench of Justices MM Sundresh and SVN Bhatti ordered after taking note of the submissions made by lawyer Asad Alvi, appearing for the cleric.

The top court was hearing an appeal filed by the cleric against the March 19 order of the Allahabad High Court. The high court had refused to grant any “indulgence” for the time being to Tauqeer Raza Khan over the warrant.

“So far as a non-bailable warrant against the revisionist (the cleric) is concerned, I am not inclined to grant any indulgence to the revisionist at this stage. The top court took note of the submissions of Alvi that the high court had passed the order without assigning reasons and granted the interim stay. Initially, the state police had arrested Khan and others but did not file a chargesheet against him. When Khan did not appear before the trial court on the fixed date, a non-bailable warrant was issued against him. On March 5, the local trial court had issued summons to the cleric.