The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear the petition filed by fact-checking website Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair seeking protection from arrest and challenging the Allahabad High Court order refusing to quash FIR registered for a tweet in which he allegedly called three Hindu seers- as 'hate mongers'. A vacation bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari agreed to list the matter for hearing on Friday subject to assignment by the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana.

Mentioning the matter for urgent hearing, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for Zubair, told the bench that there is a serious threat to his life. Gonsalves said, "This relates to Mohammed Zubair, the co-founder of Alt News. His job is to fact-check news, and he was doing the role of identifying hate speeches. A look at the FIR shows that there is no crime. We went to Allahabad High Court but no relief was granted. We seek bail in an emergency. There are death threats on the internet to him. If possible list today at 2 pm."