New Delhi: JNU Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested earlier on charges of sedition, on Thursday petitioned the Supreme Court seeking bail, arguing he is innocent but the mob at the Patiala House court complex was ready to lynch him on Wednesday as if he was guilty, that erodes a citizen’s faith in the justice delivery system established under the law by India’s Constitution.
Read: JNU row: Police filed sedition charge against Kanhaiya based on TV clip
The JNUSU chief said in his petition that the atmosphere of violence and intimidation continued unabated, and the visiting team was also attacked by a group of lawyers and others while returning to this court, adding the environment at Patiala House was not conducive even for a hearing, much less for a fair trial.
He sought bail and immediate release from custody based on what he said was the exceptional and unprecedented breakdown of the justice delivery system even after the Supreme Court’s directions on Wednesday morning.
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The Supreme Court will hear the petition on Friday, while the Bar Council of India has decided to crack the whip on the group of unruly lawyers who turned violent at the Patiala House courts, saying the licences of those found guilty would be suspended for life.
Bar Council apologises to Kanhaiya Kumar, media
The Bar Council also issued an unreserved apology to Kanhaiya Kumar, the media people and all those who were attacked by a group of lawyers in the Patiala House complex.
Read: SC terms Patiala House court incidents as 'extraordinary circumstances'
Incidentally, none of the three lawyers summoned by the Delhi police over the February 15 attack on journalists, JNU students and teachers in the Patiala House courts have appeared before the police yet.
At the Supreme Court on Thursday, a bench of Justices J. Chelameswar and A.M. Sapre, after hearing senior counsel Raju Ramachandran, posted Kanhaiya Kumar’s petition for hearing at 10.30 am Friday along with another petition filed by a lawyer who alleged that his complaint was not registered by the police.
Earlier, senior advocate R.P. Luthra took exception to Kanhaiya seeking bail directly in the Supreme Court through a writ petition and told the bench that this was against procedural law and the court should not act like a magistrate’s court.
“I am yet to see a procedure by which this court can hear such a petition,” Mr Luthra said.
But Justice Chelameswar shot back: “If a citizen comes to this court saying his fundamental rights are under threat, we have to hear him. Something extraordinary is going on in this country. No doubt about it... We will certainly examine this issue... Everybody should remember that the administration of justice should be fair. Ultimately we have to exercise our jurisdiction in one way or the other.”
In his writ petition, Kanhaiya Kumar said he was an innocent person, and his presumption of innocence is sacrosanct.
