The Supreme Court notice to the Uttar Pradesh government

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on a plea challenging the Allahabad High Court’s decision to accept the state’s refusal to grant sanction to prosecute Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in a 2007 hate speech case.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud also issued notice to the Director General of Police (Crime Branch), Gorakhpur District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police. The court was hearing a petition filed by Gorakhpur resident Parvez Parvaz and Asad Hayat from Azamgarh.

Appearing for the state government, Senior Advocate Aman Lekhi accepted the notice. The reply will be filed in two weeks. The court will now hear the matter after six weeks. A division bench of the high court had, on February 22, dismissed a plea seeking a CBI probe into the case. The court found no discrepancy in the probe already carried out.

The CJI-led bench agreed to hear the petition filed by Parvaz, on whose plea a magistrate court in Gorakhpur had, in 2008, ordered initiation of a criminal case against Adityanath for allegedly delivering a hate speech that led to riots in the district. The petitioners had contended that the case should be handed over to an independent agency like the CBI, saying the state police’s CB-CID was “deliberately delaying and impeding investigation”.