The Delhi government Principal Secretary AK Mendiratta has landed in trouble after he cleared the file relating to the JNU sedition case. He has been served a show-cause notice by Delhi Law Minister Kailash Gahlot for clearing the file relating to the 2016 JNU sedition case without the approval of the Law Ministry reports Republic TV. The ministry has also written to the Delhi High Court in this respect.
The notice refers to Rule 13 of the transaction of business rules which states that no decision or views can be communicated by any principal secretary without the approval of the minister in charge. The Delhi government had received the charge sheet on January 14 but no action was taken on it.
The 1200 page charge sheet prepared by the Delhi police with painful efforts over 3 years was rejected by the Patiala House Court on January 19 when it was presented before it. The court had asked the Delhi police to get the charge sheet sanctioned by the Delhi government. The Delhi police had revealed before the court that the AAP-led Delhi government did not respond to the charge sheet after it was received by the government.
The charge sheet contains the names of former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, Umar Gul, Basharat Ali, Raes Rasool and Khalid Bhat along with Shehla Rashid and the CPI national secretary D Raja’s daughter Aparajita Raja for allegedly shouting anti-national slogans at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi in 2016.
The first request seeking the permission to commence prosecution in the JNU sedition case was submitted by the Delhi police in 2016. And the second request was submitted on Monday (January 21). The unexplained delay by the Delhi government in giving the sanction to the charge sheet is casting a shadow on the intention of the government.
