Op-India editor, Nupur J Sharma has accused LiveLaw and its founder MA Rashid of misrepresenting the Sharjeel Imams’ case. Publishing an article on the same Nupur wrote that there was only “a hearing in the Supreme Court in an ongoing case involving Sharjeel Imam” and the matter was “not about a bail hearing” or the “delay in High Court” or about “Delhi-riots larger conspiracy case”. She also annexed a “supreme court listing” to pretend that it’s a fact-based article.
“In legal reporting, one always mentions if it’s a fresh petition, especially when the “hearing” is actually to decide if the petition will be admitted or not. LiveLaw deliberately skips that part so the narrative can be how SC – especially Bela Trivedi – is delaying the hearing, when the truth is, the date for hearing on admission has been set 4 days after verification,” Nupur later posted on social portal X.
But in reality, the facts and information have been “morphed and concealed” to weave a “hate narrative” and boost the particular Hindutva agenda of news websites. The article not only misrepresents the court proceedings but also “plays with the facts” in the name of fact-checking.
The Fact
The fact is Sharjeel Imam, a student activist who has been in custody in the Delhi riot conspiracy case since 2020 awaits the hearing of bail plea by the Supreme Court. As per USCIRF, he was “detained for protesting religious freedom conditions.”
On October 22, Live Law, a leading portal that covers legal news in India posted about Sharjeel Imam’s petition regarding the “delay in hearing his bail plea” and informed that the next hearing would be on October 25.
Here are the actual facts and the loopholes between the accusations of Op-India:
- Nupur Sharma addressed “a Supreme Court petition” as a bail application. (Source)
- Instead of October 22, the hearing would be on October 25 now, which translates into “delay in court hearing”. (Source)
- As the name suggests “Sharjeel Imam Versus NCT of Delhi” is related to the Delhi riots case. (Source)
- “One petition (WP (Crl) 422/24) was listed before Justice Bela Trivedi’s bench. This was seeking directions for expeditious hearing of his bail plea in the Delhi High Court in the riots conspiracy case. The other petition of Sharjeel Imam (Diary no.4730/2020) was listed before Justice Khanna. This petition was to consolidate various FIRs against him” wrote Manu Sebastian, managing Editor, of Live Law on the social media portal “X”.
Op-India “intentionally concealed” this info to morph the meanings for a first-time reader.
This propaganda-based article can be defined as a misrepresentation of the court proceedings. Currently, Live Law has demanded Op-India to delete the article, apologize.
Precisely, Op-India intends to spread misinformation regarding the matter and pretends to “save the honour of the court” but in reality, it has humiliated the proceedings with fake news.
