PRAYAGRAJ, April 11 -- The Allahabad high court has declined to quash criminal proceedings against Noor Ahmed Azhari, UP chairman of the Muslim Personal Law Board, over a viral video in which he allegedly claimed that BJP-ruled states were intimidating Muslims and had trampled the Constitution.

An FIR was registered against him at Puranpur police station in Pilibhit district, following which a charge sheet was filed. The Pilibhit chief judicial magistrate court took cognisance and issued summons on July 24, 2024, prompting Azhari to move the high court under Section 528 of the Bhartiya Nyaya Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) seeking quashing of the proceedings.

Dismissing the plea, justice Saurabh Srivastava observed, "At the stage of taking cogn...