Delhi govt yet to allow prosecution in JNU sedition case: Police tells court.

The Police had on January 14 filed a chargesheet against former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar and others in connection with an incident, in which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised on the university campus during an event marking the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru in February 2016.

The police had told the court that the sanction for prosecution in the case was sought from the Delhi government. The court had refused to take cognisance of the police chargesheet, saying the prosecution sanction was not taken from the authority concerned.

The concerned file submitted by the police to the home department of the Delhi government was sent to the law ministry for opinion. The principal secretary (law) sent it back with the opinion on January 18.

The sanction had hit a roadblock with Delhi Law Minister Kailash Gahlot issuing a notice to the principal secretary (law) for sending the ministry’s opinion directly to the home department, without placing the related file before him. In the show-cause notice to Principal Secretary (Law) AK Mendiratta dated January 21, the minister cited rules, saying no decision could be made and no opinion could be communicated to any other department without his prior approval.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said the law department was examining the granting of sanction while accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Centre of committing “sedition” by creating hurdles in the works of the Delhi government. 

Kejriwal had said in a tweet in Hindi that he does not know whether Kanhaiya has committed sedition or not, which is being examined by the law department but the PM has stalled (works on) schools for children, hospitals, installation of CCTV cameras, setting up of mohalla clinics in Delhi asking if this is not sedition.

Bureau Report