The Delhi Police has filed a 12,000-page chargesheet against 10 people, including student leader Kanhaiya Kumar. (File) The Delhi Police has filed a 12,000-page chargesheet against 10 people, including student leader Kanhaiya Kumar. (File)

A Delhi court Thursday expressed displeasure over the Delhi Police not being able to get requisite sanctions in the 2016 JNU sedition case, involving former student union president Kanhaiya Kumar and others, and said it will proceed in the matter without it.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat was informed by Delhi Police counsel that the Delhi government has not yet given its approval to prosecute Kumar and others under IPC Section 124A (sedition). The Delhi government’s counsel replied that it is exploring all legal angles on the issue.

The judge said he will proceed with the matter if the prosecuting agency is unable to get sanction with regard to the particular offence on March 11 — for which sanction is a must from the competent authority.

“You (Delhi Police) took three years (for filing chargesheet). Now they (Delhi government) will also take three years (for granting sanctions)… Whether sanction has been granted or not, I will proceed with the case,” he said. The court will proceed with the case on basis of all charges, except sedition, against the accused.

Kumar and the others have been charged with offences under IPC sections 124A (sedition), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 465 (forgery), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 143 (being a member of an unlawful assembly), 149 (being a member of an unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).

The court also said it wanted to see the CD on the basis of which police has arrayed them as accused in the matter, and sought to know the evidence on which the charges have been slapped.

Police had claimed that Kumar was leading a procession and supported seditious slogans raised on campus during an event on February 9, 2016.

Police also charged former JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya for allegedly shouting anti-India slogans during the event to mark the hanging of Parliament-attack mastermind Afzal Guru.

The court had earlier questioned police for filing a chargesheet without procuring sanction. “Why did you file (the chargesheet) without approval? You don’t have a legal department,” the court had said, granting police time to procure the same.

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