The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Delhi government on JNU student leader Sharjeel Imam’s plea for the consolidation of multiple FIRs registered against him for alleged offences relating to sedition and inciting people to violence.
A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and Sanjiv Khanna sought Delhi police’s response and posted the matter for further hearing after 10 days.
Besides cases under IPC Sections 124A (sedition) 153A, Sharjeel is also accused of offences under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in connection with a speech he delivered at Jamia Millia Islamia university in December during a protest against the new citizenship act.
In his petition Sharjeel cited the Supreme Court’s recent decision to consider news anchor Arnab Goswami’s plea to club multiple FIRs registered against him in many states over the alleged hate speech. The JNU student leader has sought similar clubbing of all the cases registered against him in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Arunachal and investigation by a single agency so that the trial, too, can be conducted at one place.
While Delhi police recently slapped the sedition charge on Sharjeel and alleged that his speech “promoted enmity” between people that led to riots in and around Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia on December 15, similar FIRs were registered against him by individuals in other states too.
Senior advocate Sidharth Dave, who appeared for Sharjeel, told the court that the FIRs were identical and so it would be appropriate to bunch them together and let one agency probe them. “There is nothing wrong in the police registering an FIR if there is a complaint of cognisable offence,” Justice Bhushan, heading the bench, observed.
When the bench was told that none had appeared on behalf of the Delhi government, the court issued notice to the state and asked the petitioner to serve a copy of the petition to the police for their response.
Sharjeel, who is in judicial custody, was arrested on January 28 by Delhi police’s crime branch from Jehanabad in Bihar.
