NEW DELHI, 9 February, 2021 (TON): On Tuesday, the Supreme Court granted Sanjay Singh protection against arrest in all FIRs registered against him in Uttar Pradesh in relief to Aam Aadmi Party’s Rajya Sabha member.

The SC issued notice on his plea for joining of all FIRs, he cited eight filed in Lucknow, Sant Kabir Nagar, Khiri, Bagpat, Muzaffarnagar, Basti and Aligarh etc.

His lawyer Vivek Tankha contended before a bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan that since Singh was a Rajya Sabha member, the permission for his prosecution should have been given by the Chair of the Upper House. Tankha said that identical FIRs have been filed against the AAP leader at dozen places.

After a brief hearing, the bench directed that Singh should not be arrested in the criminal cases registered against him and adjourned the matter for further hearing in the third week of March.

Singh has moved the top court to seek quashing of FIRs and claimed that these cases were a result of "political vendetta".

In his plea, the Rajya Sabha member said that he had merely highlighted certain social issues and the alleged apathy of the state government against certain section of society.

However, the bench said that Singh can seek exemption before the trial court and declined to issue any notice at this stage on the request that he should be protected in the backdrop of the NBW against him.