The Bombay High Court on Tuesday asked activist Sharjeel Usmani to appear before Pune police for questioning in connection with an FIR lodged against him for hate speech at the Elgar Parishad conclave held this year.

A division bench of Justices S S Shinde and Manish Pitale asked the police not to take any coercive action against Usmani till March 16 when the court will hear his plea seeking to quash the case.