Slogans at JNU; SC asks adv. to get AG's view on contempt plea

New Delhi, Feb 29: The Supreme Court on Monday, Feb 29 asked a lawyer to get the opinion of the Attorney General before it accords hearing to his plea seeking contempt action against jailed JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, former DU lecturer SAR Gilani and few others on the ground that they allegedly termed the execution of Afzal Guru as "judicial killing".

"You will have to get the opinion of the AG (Mukul Rohatgi) because that is the legal requirement. You please go to the AG again," a bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justices R Banumathi and U U Lalit said.

The remarks came when Pune-based lawyer Vineet Dhanda sought an urgent hearing of his plea saying that the terming hanging of Afzal Guru as "judicial killing" amounted to contempt of the highest court of the land which had delivered the verdict.

The contempt plea has referred to the apex court verdict, pronounced on August 4, 2005 in the case, by which Guru was handed down death penalty for being part of the conspiracy in the attack on Parliament.

"The so-called cultural event's pamphlets spoke about the judicial killing of Afzal Guru. The main topic of the 'cultural event' organized was judicial killing of Afzal Guru which outright tantamount to criminal contempt as the respondents are calling the judges of the apex court as killers who have been projected to have committed judicial killing of Afzal Guru," the plea said.

"Afzal and Yakub Memon were no martyrs as projected by the group of students of JNU. The Supreme Court has already passed a detailed judgement in both cases after giving due consideration as per law after going through the evidence," it further said.

Pamphlets were allegedly distributed during the "so- called" cultural event held at JNU on February 9 that termed death sentence to Guru and Maqbool Bhatt as "judicial killing", the plea said.

The students, who organized the event, also used social media platforms and "tarnished" the image of Supreme Court, it alleged. Besides Kanhaiya and Gilani, the plea has sought contempt action against Umar Khalid, Lenin Kumar, Anirban Bhattacharya, Shehla Rashid Shora and Ali Javed.

PTI