Plea in Supreme Court to prosecute Kanhaiya Kumar in 2016 sedition case

A plea has been moved in the Supreme Court against the Delhi High Court's refusal to direct the city's AAP government to grant sanction for prosecution of former JNU Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar in the 2016 sedition case.

The Delhi Police had already filed a chargesheet in the court against Kumar and former JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya. According to the police, they were allegedly leading a procession and supported slogans tantmount to sedition on 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 as the delay in cases of this nature undermines the rule of law. "Direct the respondents for issuance of guidelines for expeditious prosecutions in respect of all sensitive criminal and corruption related cases where the allegations are serious in nature," said the plea.

The petition urged the top court to pass direction to the government for constituting a high-powered committee to examine the aspects leading to inordinate delay in the administrative processes for grant of sanction for prosecution. In December, last year, the Delhi High Court had said it cannot pass any direction in this regard and left it on the discretion of the Delhi government to decide, on the grant of approval, as per existing rules, policy, law and facts of that case.

The High Court had observed it is apparent that the petitioner had some personal interest in the case against the people involved in the case.