A Delhi court on July 23, 2019, granted two months to Delhi Police to secure the required sanctions to prosecute Former JNU Students Union President Kanhaiya Kumar and others in sedition charge of 2016. The order has been passed by Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Manish Khurana after the police sought more time since the Delhi Government’s Home Department has not provided the sanctions for the prosecution.
The infamous JNU sedition case is against Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, and Anirban Bhattacharya in which they were accused of allegedly shouting anti-national slogans inside the JNU campus. Delhi Police later filed a charge sheet against the accused on 14th January this year in a local court under the charges of sedition, rioting and criminal offence without procuring sanctions from Delhi Government for the prosecution of the accused. The court later criticized the police for filing a charge-sheet without the approval of the state.
According to Indian Express, Law Officer Rahul Mehra said that the charge-sheet has a material error and the Government counsel has told the Delhi Government to reject the request for the sanction. Mr Mehra has claimed that criticizing the government or its policies does not count as a sedition case and therefore the charge-sheet filed is wrong.
