The bench said that the alleged social media posts were “all hate mongering” and would not fall within the ambit of free speech.

“Hate speech will not take us anywhere,” the Supreme Court said Monday as it stayed further arrest of Wazahat Khan, accused of allegedly hurting religious sentiments through his social media posts and on whose complaint West Bengal police arrested law student Sharmishta Panoli on similar charges.

Issuing notice on his plea seeking consolidation of FIRs registered against Khan in Assam, Maharashtra, Delhi and Haryana over his social media posts, a bench of Justices K V Viswanathan and N K Singh directed against any coercive action in the other FIRs or any other FIR that may be registered in future over the same allegations. The bench noted that Khan was undergoing police custody in an FIR registered at the Golf Link police station in Kolkata, and was also remanded to judicial custody in another FIR lodged in Bengal.