JNU case: Court asks Delhi govt to decide within a month on sanction to prosecute Kanhaiya

New Delhi, Sep 18: The Delhi government was asked by a court to decide within one month on the clearance to prosecute former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar and others in a sedition case.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Manish Khurana said the delay in taking a decision on the subject has wasted the court's time as the case had been listed and adjourned repeatedly since the chargesheet was filed.

The court's order came after the Delhi Police told it that the file regarding the sanction is pending with the Home Department.

"The time which is being taken to finalise the issue of sanction or otherwise has caused wastage of judicial time as the case had been listed and adjourned repeatedly since the filing of the charge sheet," the court said.

"It is expected of the Delhi government that the decision regarding the sanction or otherwise would be taken within one month so that further processing in the present case may be done," it added.

The court said it will hear the case again on October 25, by when the reports have to be filed.

On January 14, the police had filed a chargesheet in the court against Mr Kumar and others, including former JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, saying they were leading a procession and supported seditious slogans raised on the campus during an event on February 9, 2016.

The court had directed the police to ask authorities concerned to speed up the process while granting it three weeks to secure the sanction needed to prosecute Mr Kumar and others accused in the case.