New Delhi: A Delhi court on Wednesday gave the police time till February 28 to procure the sanctions needed to prosecute former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar and others in a 2016 sedition case.

The court told the police to ask the authorities concerned to expedite the sanctions.

The police told the court that the sanctions are pending with the Delhi government and are expected in a matter of days.

“Authorities can’t sit on the file for an indefinite period,” the court said.

Also read: My Impressions of the Sedition-Accused Students of JNU

The court had earlier questioned the Delhi police for filing a chargesheet against Kumar and others without procuring the requisite sanctions and granted time till February 6. “You don’t have approval from legal department, why did you file chargesheet without approval?” the bench had said.

On January 14, police filed the chargesheet against Kumar and former JNU students Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya and others in a city court. It said Kumar was leading a procession and supported “seditious” slogans during an event in the varsity on February 9, 2016, to mark the hanging of Afzal Guru.

Kumar has announced that he will contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from the Begusarai constituency in Bihar.

(With PTI inputs)