The Supreme Court Monday extended the interim bail granted to Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair by it in a case registered at Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh for calling Hindu seers hatemongers in his tweet.
A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and A S Bopanna allowed a plea by the Uttar Pradesh government seeking time to file its response.
The court allowed four weeks time to the state government and two weeks thereafter for the petitioner to file his rejoinder.
It posted the matter for final disposal on September 7 while extending the interim bail till further orders.
Zubair, however, would remain in judicial custody as he had been arrested in two other cases lodged by the Delhi Police and Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri police.
On July 8, he was granted five days interim bail in the case lodged by Sitapur police in Uttar Pradesh on June 1.
Zubair challenged validity of the Allahabad High Court's June 10 order rejecting his plea for pre arrest bail in Sitapur case. Subsequently, he was arrested first by Delhi police and later by UP police.
The case was registered against him at the Khairabad police station of Sitapur on a complaint lodged by Hindu Lion Army district president Bhagwan Sharan. It was alleged that Zubair called Hindu seers Yati Narasinghan Saraswati, Bajrang Muni, and Anand Swaroop as hatemongers.
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