No immediate relief: Supreme Court asks Kanhaiya Kumar to go to High Court for bail

NEW DELHI: JNU students’ union leader Kanhaiya Kumar will spend the weekend in Tihar jail. The Supreme Court rejected his plea to exercise extraordinary jurisdiction to free him on bail saying it did not want to set a “dangerous precedent” while asking them to approach the high court. Kumar has been charged with sedition over accusations of anti-India slogans during a meeting on the campus.

A bench of justices Jasti Chelameswar and Abhay Manohar Sapre declined to grant bail to Kumar saying it would open the floodgates for prominent and others accused in controversial cases to rush to the top court bypassing the high court.

“Every prominent personality in every controversial case will then come to this court. Why should we short circuit the whole process? People will think that the other courts are incapable of addressing security concerns,” said Justice Chelameswar. Following the SC’s refusal to hear the bail plea, Kanhaiya’s lawyers moved the Delhi high court seeking bail within hours but his plea will be heard only next week.

Appearing for the Modi government in the SC, Solicitor-General Ranjit Kumar insisted that the charges against Kanhaiya were “very serious” and investigations were still on and urged the top court not to intercede on his behalf for now. “Everything must be taken with a pinch of salt.” The SG said that the accused should first approach the lower court and then the high court before knocking the top court’s door. He assured that the Union government would ensure the safety of the lawyers of the accused when they moved the high court for bail.