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SC rejects BJP leader’s plea for sanction in Kanhaiya Kumar sedition case
BJP leader Nand Kishore Garg had moved the Supreme Court after the Delhi High Court declined his plea.
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea by BJP leader Nand Kishore Garg seeking direction to the Delhi government to sanction the prosecution of former Jawaharlal Nehru University students’ union president and CPI leader Kanhaiya Kumar in the 2016 JNU sedition case.
“We won’t entertain such a plea. It has to be decided on case-to-case basis”, Chief Justice of India Sharad Arvind Bobde said.
Garg had moved the Supreme Court after the Delhi High Court declined his plea last December. He had alleged that the Delhi government was deliberately delaying granting sanction to the police to prosecute Kanhaiya Kumar.
The High Court while dismissing Garg’s plea had observed that he “is personally interested” in the case.
The Delhi Police had filed the charge sheet against Kanhaiya and others on January 14 last year under offences of sedition, rioting, criminal conspiracy.
Last week, a news agency reported that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that he would ask for an early decision by his government in the sedition case involving Kanhaiya Kumar.
Kejriwal’s reaction came day after a Delhi Court asked for a status report on the issue of the pending sanction to prosecute Kanhaiya and others.
The court also directed the Delhi Police to send a reminder to the government and posted the matter for hearing on April 3.
During the last hearing before the Delhi assembly elections were held, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had said that it had not taken any decision on the grant of sanction till then.
The JNU sedition case has led to a political blame game between the BJP and the AAP, with the former accusing the latter of shielding alleged anti-nationals by not granting permission to prosecute them.
