SC refuses to entertain plea seeking sanctions to prosecute Kanhaiya Kumar in 2016 sedition case

A bench of the Apex Court, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde, while refusing to entertain the petition, said, "We won't entertain such a plea. It has to be decided on a case to case basis".

The apex court, however, asked the petitioner to approach the lower court, if he wanted any relief.

A special leave petition (SLP) was filed by Dr Garg, through lawyer Shashank Deo Sudhi, challenging the Delhi High Court order, which had refused to pass any order for the grant of sanction by the State of NCT of Delhi for trial in the sedition case.

The petitioner sought a direction to the respondent, Government of NCT to grant immediate sanction in one of the most serious and grave cases titled as State versus Kanhaiya Kumar in the 2016 case registered at Vasant Kunj Police Station, which it said is "being deliberately delayed" by the respondent by not granting the sanction.

The petition sought a direction to the Delhi Government for issuance of guidelines for expeditious prosecutions in respect of all sensitive criminal and corruption-related cases where the allegations are serious in nature and are having a widespread ramification on the community in terms of deterrence.

The lapses of respondents could amount to threat to the rule of law and democratic structure of our country for not having carried out adequate caution and precaution to bring the real culprits to justice in a time-bound manner, the petition stated.

The petitioner also sought a direction that in long-pending cases where the "state government had not lived up to the rule of law" by not adhering to the solemn oath taken by the lawmakers under Schedule-III of the Constitution of India.

It sought a direction to Delhi Government to constitute a high-powered committee to look into the aspects of delay in the procedural compliances, which it said are leading to inordinate delay in the administrative processes for grant of sanction or other compliances in the criminal cases of the state including the criminal case.

Delhi Police, in its charge-sheet, had said that former JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar and others, including former JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, led a procession and raised anti-national slogans in the university campus during an event on February 9, 2016.

It said that there was video footage wherein Kanhaiya Kumar is "seen leading the students who were "raising anti-national slogans" and that he had been identified by the witnesses in the videos.