Plea in SC for direction to prosecute ex-JNUSU chief Kanhaiya Kumar in 2016 sedition case

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court order by which it had refused to direct the AAP government to grant sanction for prosecution of former JNU Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar in a 2016 sedition case.

The police, on January 14, had filed a charge sheet in the court against Kumar and others, including former JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, saying they were leading a procession and supported seditious slogans raised in the university campus during an event on February 9, 2016.

The plea filed by BJP leader Nand Kishor Garg sought immediate grant of sanction against Kumar and said that delay in prosecution of such cases could amount to threat to the rule of law.

The petition also sought direction to the government for constituting a high-powered committee to look into aspects leading to inordinate delay in the administrative processes for grant of sanction for prosecution or other compliances in criminal cases of the state, including that of Kumar.

"Direct the respondents for issuance of guidelines for expeditious expeditious prosecutions in respect of all sensitive criminal and corruption related cases where the allegations are serious in nature and having a widespread ramifications on the community in terms of deterrence and any lapses of respondents could amount to threat the rule law...", the plea said.

The high court had on December 4, last year said it cannot pass any direction in this regard and it is for the Delhi government to decide as per existing rules, policy, law and facts of that case on whether to grant approval for prosecution.

The High Court, while disposing of the petition, had said it appeared that Garg, has some personal interest in the FIR lodged against Kumar and others in relation to the JNU sedition case of 2016.