Former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar. (File Photo)The Delhi High Court has dismissed a plea seeking initiation of perjury proceedings against former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and a JNU professor for allegedly filing false affidavits in 2016 along with the bail plea of the student leader in a sedition case, saying it is “frivolous and ill-advised”.
“The averments in the writ petition do not make out a case of perjury as is allayed. The court, even otherwise, does not find it expedient or in the interest to exercise the jurisdiction vested in it…,” Justice R K Gauba said, in his order passed last month.
Police also opposed the plea by an advocate, Prashant Kumar Umrao, saying there was no material to substantiate the allegation that they had filed false affidavits along with the bail plea of Kanhaiya.
The investigating officer had said that on August 11, 2016, the court had already dismissed pleas to cancel interim bail of Kanhaiya in the sedition case on the ground that nothing was shown to prove that he had made an anti-national speech after his release.
The reply from police came against the backdrop of a court notice issued to it on a plea claiming that a JNU professor had “deliberately” filed a false affidavit in High Court along with Kanhaiya’s bail petition in the case.
In his plea, advocate Umrao had contended that the professor had wrongly vouched on oath about Kanhaiya not being involved in any “anti-national activity” and for saying that he was a man of proper conduct.
Justice Gauba, however, said “this court finds no merit or substance” in the contention made by the advocate.
On March 2, 2016 Kanhaiya had been granted six-month interim bail by the high court.
He was later granted regular bail by the trial court in connection with the case, related to an event on the JNU campus on February 9, 2016, in which alleged anti-India slogans were raised.
Kanhaiya was arrested on February 12, 2016, on charges of sedition. Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya were also arrested in the case. A trial court had on August 26, 2016, granted regular bail to the three accused.
