HC junks PIL to revoke Kanhaiya Kumar’s citizenship, fines petitioner Rs 25K

The Allahabad high court has dismissed with cost a public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking revocation of citizenship of Kanhaiya Kumar, former president of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students’ union, in connection with the alleged anti-national slogans that he and others raised at a gathering on the central university campus in 2016.

A bench comprising justice SK Gupta and justice Shamim Ahmed passed the order on a PIL petition filed by one Nageshwar Mishra of Varanasi.

The court also imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 on the petitioner for casually filing the plea to gain “cheap publicity” and for wasting precious time of the court which was working with “limited strength due to pandemic”.

The court also said the petition was ‘devoid of merit’ and ‘wholly misconceived’ as the petitioner relied on Section 10 of the Indian Citizenship Act, 1955, which is applicable in cases where citizenship is given by central government to a non-citizen and not to someone who was an Indian citizen by birth.

While declining to pass any direction, the court observed, “Question of deprivation of citizenship cannot arise, merely because he (Kanhaiya Kumar) is facing trial before the court in Delhi on charges of allegedly raising the inflammatory slogans.”

“It must be noted that deprivation of citizenship is a serious aspect as it would affect a person’s right to live in India and it may also result in making the person stateless,” the bench said.

The petitioner had claimed that Kumar allegedly raised anti-national slogans on JNU campus on February 9, 2016 but the Centre had not taken any action against him till date.

“Kumar and his associates are supporting the freedom struggle of terrorist groups who are working on the instigation of Pakistan to destabilise unity and disturb the peace and tranquility of our country,” the petitioner had alleged.