Hearing in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) sedition case, in which former JNU Students' Union Kanhaiya Kumar is an accused, was adjourned till April 3, due to pending sanctions by the Delhi government.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Purshottam Pathak adjourned the matter after the investigating officer in the case informed the court the the required sanctions are yet to be received from the Home Department of the government and there have been no updates on it.
The court also asked the Delhi government to submit a status report in this regard and directed Delhi Police to send the government a reminder seeking the requisite sanctions.
It may be noted that under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the court cannot take cognizance of the police charge sheet without sanction from the state government.
The police in its 1200-page charge sheet filed in January last year had contended that there were videos wherein Kumar could be seen on February 9, 2016 "leading the students who were raising anti-national slogans" in the JNU campus and that he had been identified by witnesses.
The police have charged Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya with raising 'anti-national slogans' during an event, which was organised to mark the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.