The Supreme Court on Thursday chided Madhya Pradesh minister Kunwar Vijay Shah for his controversial remarks on Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and refused to stay “any coercive action” against him.

But it agreed to examine on Friday the BJP politician’s plea challenging the state high court’s suo motu directive for the registration of an FIR against him.

Shah had on Tuesday purportedly told a public meeting that “we avenged those people (terrorists) who wiped out the sindoor of our sisters (at Pahalgam) by sending one of their own sisters”.

This was understood as an allusion to Col Qureshi, one of the defence spokespersons during the Operation Sindoor briefings, being a co-religionist of the Pahalgam terrorists.

“What type of statements are you making?” the bench of Chief Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih asked senior advocate Vibha Dutta Makhija, who was representing Shah, the state tribal welfare minister.

Makhija had sought urgent hearing of Shah’s petition against the high court direction, passed on Wednesday.

“A person like him who is holding such an important office is expected to
maintain decorum. Every sentence uttered by a minister has to be with some sense of responsibility,” Justice Gavai said.

“A person holding constitutional office should be responsible when he knows the country is going through such a situation.”

Makhija claimed Shah had been misquoted and underscored that he had apologised unconditionally. But an unmoved bench refused to stay the FIR or direct that no coercive step be taken.

Justice Gavai remarked orally that since Shah was a minister, the police were unlikely to adopt any coercive action.

“You (minister) know who you are. We know nothing will happen! You go and apply to the high court (for stay of FIR or other relief),” he said.

But he assured the senior counsel: “We will have it (hear the plea) tomorrow.”

The bench dismissed a public-interest plea moved by an advocate seeking criminal proceedings against Shah for his remarks.

“We don’t want these publicity interest litigations. These days anybody reads newspapers and files such petitions,” Justice Gavai said. “Don’t file these types
of pleas….”

HC raps police

Madhya Pradesh High Court on Thursday came down heavily on the police and said it had been “compelled” to monitor the probe into Shah’s remark.

The division bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Anuradha Shukla said “the manner in which the FIR has been registered… does not inspire confidence of this court”.

It said it believed that “if the case is not duly monitored, the police would not investigate fairly”.

The bench said it would monitor the probe “without interfering in the independence of the investigating agency” while trying to ensure it acted fairly “without being influenced by any extraneous pressures or directions”.

It explained that “having gone through the FIR in its entirety, there is not a single mention of the actions of the suspect, which would satisfy the ingredients of the offences which have been registered against him”.

It added: “The operative portion of the paragraph 12 is nothing but the reproduction of last part of the order passed by this court on 14.05.2025 and it does not have a whisper of the earlier part of the order, which lays down in detail, the actions of the suspect and how they constitute an offence under each of the sections mentioned herein above.”

It said the FIR had been “drawn in a manner so as to assist… Shah to be able to have the FIR quashed on a later date”.

The court said it would later find out “who was responsible in the chain of command of the state police for this clumsy attempt”.

Chief minister Mohan Yadav said in a tweet that following the high court directive, he had “given instructions to take action regarding” Shah’s statement.

Yadav and his party, the BJP, have so far ignored Opposition demands to sack Shah.