The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea challenging the Allahabad High Court judgement in a matter pertaining to the alleged hate speech of 2007 involving Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana said it is not necessary to go into issue of denial of sanction in this case.

The legal questions of sanction will be kept open to be dealt with an appropriate case, the bench also comprising Justices Hima Kohli and C T Ravikumar said.

In its verdict delivered in February 2018, the high court had said it has not found any procedural error either in the conduct of an investigation or in the decision-making process of refusal to grant sanction to prosecute.

An FIR was lodged at a police station in Gorakhpur against Adityanath, then a Member of Parliament, and several others on alleged charges of promoting enmity between two groups.

The alleged speech, delivered by Adityanath at Gorakhpur, had reportedly led to the death of 10 people and massive destruction of properties.A bench of Chief Justice N.V. Ramana, Justice Hima Kohli and Justice C.T. Ravi Kumar had reserved the verdict after hearing senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, and advocate Fuzzail Ayyubi, appearing for petitioners Parvez Parwaz and Asad Hyat.

According to the petitioners, Adityanath was arrested and remanded to judicial custody for 11 days after the said incident in 2007. The petitioners said they had approached Allahabad High Court, which dismissed the petition in 2018, following which they appealed before the Supreme Court.

The petitioners had sought Adityanath’s prosecution for alleged offences under IPC sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 153A (hate speech), 395(dacoity) and 295 (defiling place of worship) of the Indian Penal Code.

In their appeal, the petitioners said, “We have video tapes of the CM’s speeches and sufficient material for initiation of action against the CM for allegedly instigating the riots by his hate speech.” They urged the Supreme Court to set aside the high court order and direct the Uttar Pradesh government to initiate action against the chief minister.