JNU sedition case: No action against Kanhaiya Kumar for now, says Delhi HC

Kanhaiya Kumar has challenged the university's decision to impose a fine on him in connection with a 2016 incident during which anti-national slogans were raised on the campus.

NEW DELHI: In a temporary breather to student-activist Kanhaiya Kumar, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) not to take any action against the former students' union leader for at least two days in connection with the sedition case registered against him.

Passing the order, the High Court directed the JNU not to take any coercive steps for at least two days against Kanhaiya Kumar, who was fined in connection with a sedition case slapped on him.

The court also posted the matter for hearing on July 20.

Delhi High Court directs JNU not to take any coercive steps atleast for two days against Kanhaiya Kumar, who was fined in connection with a sedition case,matter deferred to July 20 — ANI (@ANI) July 18, 2018

The court of Justice Siddharth Mridul passed the order while responding to a plea filed by the former JNUSU president, who has challenged the university's decision to impose a fine on him in connection with a 2016 incident during which anti-national slogans were raised on the varsity campus.

The fine on the former JNUSU president was imposed by a high-level JNU panel after a thorough investigation in this regard.

According to ANI, the plea will be heard by Justice Siddharth Mridul of the Delhi High Court.

Kumar, who had filed his plea through advocate Tarannum Cheema and Harsh Bora, has sought the quashing of the notification issued by the high-level probe panel set up by the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

The high-level JNU probe panel found student-activist Umar Khalid, Kanhaiya Kumar and Anirban Bhattacharya guilty in the February 2016 incident wherein a group of students allegedly raised anti-national slogans.

The panel then recommended rustication of Khalid and imposition of financial penalty on 13 other students for violation of disciplinary norms on the campus.

Kumar, a member of the Communist Party of India's student's wing, was then president of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union.

The three student-activists were accused - though none has been chargesheeted by the police as yet - of raising slogans against national integrity during a poetry-reading gathering of students at the Sabarmati Dhaba on the campus on February 9, 2016.

The Delhi Police arrested Kumar on the campus a few days later and slapped sedition charges as Khalid and Bhattacharya along with three other students went into hiding.

This led to a series of protests by JNU students and other universities in support of Kumar and other accused, who claimed that the evidence against them was fabricated and the 1860 sedition law was anachronistic. 

Currently, all three are out on bail.