High Court turns down plea to depriveKanhaiya Kumar of Indian citizenship

Prayagraj: The Allahabad high court has dismissed a PIL seeking deprivation of Indian citizenship of former JNU students union president, Kanhaiya Kumar for allegedly raising anti-national slogans during an event that took place on JNU campus on February 9, 2016.
Terming the PIL filed by one Nageshwar Mishra as frivolous, a division bench comprising Justice Shashi Kant Gupta and Justice Shamim Ahmed imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 on the petitioner, saying that he filed the present petition under the garb of public interest litigation with the sole motive of gaining cheap publicity, without even going through the relevant provisions of the Constitution of India and The Indian Citizenship Act, 1955.
Following the said incident Kanhaiya Kumar and others are facing the trial after receiving nod for prosecuting them in a sedition case.
Dismissing the PIL, the court observed, “The question of deprivation of citizenship cannot arise, merely because Kanhaiya Kumar is facing trial before the court in Delhi on charges of allegedly raising the inflammatory slogans. Also, under the present proceedings we are not competent to express any opinion with regard to the merit of the criminal case pending against him. It must be noted that deprivation of citizenship is a serious aspect as it would affect a person's right to live in India, and it may also result in making the person stateless.”
The counsel for the petitioner took the plea that despite the anti-national slogans raised by Kanhaiya Kumar, the Government of India is not taking any action to terminate his Indian citizenship. It has been further stated in the petition that Kanhaiya Kumar and his associates are supporting the freedom struggle of terrorist groups, who are working on the instigation of Pakistan to destabilize the unity and disturb the peace and tranquillity of our country.
It has been further averred that a criminal case has been instituted by lodging an FIR (No. 110 of 2016) under Sections 124-A (sedition) and 120- B (conspiracy) and other sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Kanhaiya Kumar and his associates for raising anti-national slogans. It has been further stated that keeping in view the anti-national activities, Kanhaiya Kumar be deprived of citizenship under Clause (2) of Section 10 of the Indian Citizenship Act, 1955.
Elaborating the legal aspect, the court observed, “The petition is devoid of merit as petitioner relied on section 10 of the Indian Citizenship Act, 1955, which is applicable in cases where citizenship is given by the central government to a non-citizen and not to someone, who was an Indian citizen by birth.”
“In the present case, admittedly, Kanhaiya Kumar was born in the territory of India, as such, by virtue of Article 5(a) of Constitution of India, he is a citizen of India,” the court added.
Coming down heavily on the petitioner for filing PIL only for publicity, the court observed, “It appears that the present petition, filed under the garb of public interest litigation has been preferred with the sole motive of gaining cheap publicity, without even going through the relevant provisions of the Constitution of India and The Indian Citizenship Act, 1955.”
“As such, valuable time of this Court, which is functioning in its limited strength, during the period of the pandemic, has been wasted by filing the present writ petition. Intention of the petitioner, in our opinion, is not to espouse the interest of the public, but only of his own self, by gaining publicity. Such conduct is highly condemnable. The present public interest litigation is wholly frivolous and an abuse of the process of law. Therefore, we deem it fit to impose heavy cost,” the court further observed.
The judgment dated September 2 came to limelight on September 5.