SC declines to hear plea for now against Kanhaiya, Umar, SAR Geelani, 4 others

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear plea for now seeking criminal contempt proceedings against JNU students Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, former DU professor SAR Geelani and four others.

Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court on Monday will resume the hearing on the bail plea of JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar, who has been arrested in a sedition case.

The raging JNU sedition row had assumed an altogether different dimension when the Supreme Court agreed to hear a plea seeking initiation of contempt proceedings on 20 February against arrested JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar, then absconding student activist Umar Khalid, ex-DU professor SAR Geelani and four others.

This was in connection with alleged distribution of pamphlets during events at the JNU campus and Delhi Press Club which termed Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru's hanging as "judicial killing". The death sentence awarded to Guru by sessions court was confirmed by Delhi High Court and Supreme Court.

The High Court on February 24 had deferred the hearing till today after Delhi police informed the court that it will seek Kanhaiya's further custodial interrogation.

Kanhaiya, who was arrested on February 12, was in police custody till February 17 and was later remanded in judicial custody till March 2 amid violence at the court premises during the remand proceedings.

He was taken to one-day police custody on February 25 and was thereafter remanded back in judicial custody for two weeks on February 26.

Other JNU students and accused Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, who had surrendered before the police on February 23rd, are in police custody till today.

The students face sedition charges for allegedly raising anti-national slogans at the JNU campus during an event earlier this month.