<p>The Bombay high court will hear comedian Kunal Kamra’s petition challenging the FIR against him for allegedly defaming Maharashtra’s Deputy CM<br></p>

MUMBAI: Bombay high court against the FIR dated March 24 registered against him at the Khar Police station over his show. A division bench of Justices Sarang Kotwal and S M Modak posted it for a hearing on Tuesday after senior counsel Navroz Seervai cited urgency saying police had landed in Pondicherry after issuing summons to Kamra who alleged having received death threats.
The petition seeks interim relief of no coercive action by the Mumbai police. Kamra, 36, who is in Tamil Nadu, says despite the dire threats issued to him, police refused to permit him to appear in response to a summons, via video conferencing and had demanded that he be physically present.
The HC while keeping the matter on Tuesday said the other side—MLA Murji Patel also has to be served as he must be heard too. Patel is the complainant in the FIR against Kamra.
The HC also suggested that Kamra could consider filing for regular pre-arrest bail in Mumbai —which would have to be filed before the Sessions Court. Seervai said the FIR makes no case and ought to be stayed, hence was keen that the HC hears the quashing petition.
Kamra’s case is that his show expressed his personal views on the political upheaval in Maharashtra with the Shiv Sena split. The complaint by a MLA alleged Kamra defamed deputy CM Eknath Shinde by making allegedly slanderous statements on his conduct and thus damaged the reputation of their party.
The petition claims that the first information report (FIR) is “Mala fide’’ and the proceedings “malicious and politically motivated by members of Shinde-led Sena—a gross abuse of their power as part of the ruling coalition in Maharashtra”.
Kamra’s show was in February but once uploaded on social media, last month it was met with immediate and violent reaction by party workers of the Eknath Shinde led Shiv Sena, vandalising the Mumbai venue said Kamra’s plea adding that he received death threats too.
Police also summoned Kamra’s team members, and his audience at the show. He said they also disturbed his senior citizen parents under the garb of serving the summons at 10.30 pm.
The FIR discloses no offence against him of causing fear or alarm to the public or inducing anyone to disrupt public tranquillity.
Kamra has before the Madras high court filed for transit anticipatory bail and has been granted interim protection from arrest. The hearing in the matter is scheduled for April 7.
The petition before the Bombay HC mentioned Seervai assisted by advocate Ashwin Thool and Meenaz Kakalia questions the alacrity with which the FIR was registered in “70 minutes’’ after the complaint was filed following a stand-up routine performed by Kamra in a Khar venue.
The show provides a “satirical commentary on various social and political events in the country’’ and despite that the FIR was registered exemplifying the “gross abuse of process and malafide deployment of the criminal justice machinery by a member of the State Legislative Assembly resulting in patent violation of a citizen’s fundamental rights including the fundamental right to freedom of speech and freedom to practice any profession…’’