MP minister moves SC over case for remarks against Col Qureshi, gets pulled up
Madhya Pradesh minister Vijay Shah approached the Supreme Court for a stay on the case filed against him over the remarks and the proceedings listed against him in the high court
The Supreme Court on Thursday pulled up Madhya Pradesh (MP) minister Vijay Shah for calling Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, one of the two women officers who held briefings on Operation Sindoor, a “sister of terrorists”.
“What sort of statements are you making?” asked a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan R Gavai and Justice AG Masih. “When the country is undergoing such a situation, you, being a minister and a constitutional position holder, should exercise a degree of restraint.”
Shah approached the Supreme Court for a stay on the case filed against him over the remarks and the proceedings listed against him in the MP high court on Thursday. The case was filed on the high court’s suo motu directions on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court agreed to hear Shah’s plea against the high court order on Friday. Shah argued the order was passed without hearing him.
Senior advocate Vibha Dutta Makhija, who appeared for Shah along with advocate Shantanu Krishna, said the high court exceeded its jurisdiction by directing the case registration without hearing his client.
The court asked Makhija why his client did not approach the high court. “Merely because someone is a minister, you come here.”
Makhija said Shah had apologised and urged the court to consider staying the case registered under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita’s sections 152 (endangering sovereignty, integrity and unity of India), 196 (promoting enmity), and 197 (imputations prejudicial to national integration).
The high court called Shah’s remarks “disparaging, dangerous, and language of the gutters,” which targeted an officer based on her religious identity and denigrated the armed forces.
Makhija claimed Shah’s statement was taken out of context and sought urgent orders to protect his client as the high court was expected to hear the matter.
The Supreme Court said nothing will happen in 24 hours, knowing who Shah is. “By now, it would be known everywhere that this court is going to hear the matter tomorrow [Friday].”
Shah’s comments triggered a political row. Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge described them as “shameful and vulgar”. Kharge said the mentality of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological fount, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has “always been anti-women”.
“A minister of the BJP government of Madhya Pradesh has made extremely insulting, shameful and vulgar remarks about our brave daughter Colonel Sofia Qureshi,” he said in a post on X. Kharge asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to dismiss Shah.
“First they trolled the wife of the naval officer martyred in Pahalgam on social media, then harassed the daughter of Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and now BJP ministers are making such indecent comments about our braveheart Sofia Qureshi.”
People aware of the matter said BJP state organisational secretary Hitanand Sharma reprimanded Shah on Tuesday. Shah apologised after a closed-door meeting.
In an apparent reference to Qureshi, Shah had said: “Those who widowed our daughters, we sent a sister of their own to teach them a lesson.”
Qureshi, Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, and foreign secretary Vikram Misri briefed the media on Operation Sindoor as India hit nine terror targets inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on May 7 in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam terror strike that killed 26 people. India subsequently pounded 11 air bases before a ceasefire was reached.
