A Supreme Court advocate has urged the Chief Justice of Karnataka to take suo motu cognisance of a case of sedition and promotion of hatred against a 19-year-old student who, in all probability, tried to communicate at a public forum that love for one’s country does not necessarily require hatred of another.

Advocate Kaleeswaram Raj, in his letter, said Amulya Leona Noronha was arrested from Bengaluru and remanded in judicial custody on February 21 for reportedly shouting “Pakistan Zindabad thrice, Hindustan Zindabad four times.”

Mr. Raj also refers to media reports that Amulya on February 16 tweeted in Kannada that “Be it any country, Zindabad to all nations.”

He said sedition is a crime either abandoned or put to disuse in several democracies.

Similarly, the invocation of hate charges against the student is misplaced.

“The conduct of the student does not reveal anything that reflects promotion of enmity between different groups. It perhaps does the opposite,” Mr. Raj argues, asking the court to quash the case against the student.

The letter refers to higher philosophy of one world, one family. “The great poet Rabindranath Tagore advocated for global fraternity and his idea of nationality was so captivating as it was based on universal humanism,” the letter said.

Rather than trying to understand what Amulya was trying to put across, Mr. Raj quoted reports that there are now bounties for her head.

“The fact that the student is arrested and charged under the above said provisions (sedition and promotion of hatred among groups) for shouting zindabad for several countries simultaneously is almost clear. This is a situation which warrants intervention of the Honourable High Court of Karnataka, which has the great legacy of acting as the guardian of the Constitution in critical times,” the letter to the Chief Justice said.