New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a petition challenging the denial of sanction for prosecution against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in a case related to an alleged hate speech he delivered in Gorakhpur in 2007.
A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana and com- prising Justices Hima Kohli and C T Ravikumar dismissed the appeal filed by Pervez Parwaz, challenging an Allahabad High Court order dis- missing his plea. The apex court wanted to know where was the question of sanction once a closure report was filed in a case.
The Supreme Court had earlier reserved its order after hearing the arguments and submissions from lawyer Fuzail Ayyubi, who appeared for Pervez Parwaz. Ayyubi argued that a case of hate speech was made. But when the sanction was sought, the Law Department, as well as the Home Department, declined it.
Senior advocate and former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Uttar Pradesh, stated that nothing remained in the matter as the CSFL stated that the CD in which the speech was recorded was tampered with and a closure report had been filed.
In 2008, a First Information Report was lodged by Pervez Parwaz at the Cantonment police station in Gorakhpur in which he accused Adityanath and certain others of inciting communal violence. The petitioner accused Adityanath of spreading hatred among two communities.
The Allahabad High Court, while dismissing his plea, had said that it did not find any procedural error either in the conduct of the investigation or in the decision-making process of refusal to grant sanction or any other illegality in the order which may require any interference by the court. The Law Department of Uttar Pradesh submitted that in the absence of evidence there is no justification to grant sanction for prosecution. The Principal Secretary (Home) agreed with the opinion of the Law Department.
