New Delhi: In its appeal challenging the Allahabad High Court order releasing Dr Kafeel Khan, the UP government cited Khan’s speech at the Aligarh Muslim University, saying “it was meant to create hatred as the detenue (Khan) was talking about pseudo-Hinduism and soft-Hinduism”.
“He also spoke about ideology of Hindus and RSS and towards the end of speech he made a call to only 25 crore population, which is well known to be the population of Muslims in the country,” said the UP government’s petition challenging the high court’s 1 September judgment, which had quashed Khan’s detention under the National Security Act (NSA) while passing damning remarks against the state authorities.
The petition, filed on 26 October, went on to say, “This clearly shows that the speech was addressed only to Muslims and not addressed to all communities. Thus it cannot be said that the speaker was opposing policies of the government.”
A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde, however, Thursday upheld the high court order, rejecting the government’s petition.
“It seems to be a good order by the high court… We see no reason to interfere,” Justice Bobde said. The apex court clarified that the high court’s observations would not affect the criminal cases against Khan.
The high court had specifically ruled that Khan’s speech “nowhere threatens peace and tranquility of the city of Aligarh”.
“The address gives a call for national integrity and unity among the citizens. The speech also deprecates any kind of violence,” the court had said.
Challenging this judgment, the UP government claimed, “He was promoting hatred and nowhere in his speech he addressed the call of national integrity and unity. On the other hand, he says that 25 crores will be together and will be united and it is their Hindustan and they will tell everyone how it will run.”
The petition further said that the ground for Khan’s detention was that “he was in contact with the students of the University who were visiting him in the Jail and thereafter they were posting the messages on the social media.”
“The detenu (Khan), while in jail was disturbing public order through the students of Aligarh Muslim University on social media,” it added.
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Over 200 days of detention
Khan was arrested on 29 January for an anti-CAA speech he delivered at the Aligarh Muslim University on 12 December 2019. Initially, an FIR was filed against him on 13 December, for trying to “disrupt the harmony between the communities”, under Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Later, Sections 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 505(2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill will between classes) were added to the FIR, which referred to certain sentences from his speech, including mention of “mota bhai” (Gujarati for big brother) and the RSS.
NSA charges were slapped on him on 13 February for the same speech, three days after he was granted bail in the FIR filed against him. The Yogi Adityanath government confirmed the order of detention against him on 1 April.
His detention was extended twice after that. However, the Allahabad High Court, on 1 September, quashed his detention.
In doing so, the high court had said that the district magistrate who passed the detention order against Khan “had selective reading and selective mention for few phrases from the speech ignoring its true intent”.
The bench also said there was a “serious lack of objective material on record” for a “valid subjective satisfaction with the detaining authority” against Khan.
It asserted that the DM’s “subjective satisfaction” — which is necessary for passing an NSA detention order — was not “found to have been reached in a legal and regular manner but on whim and humour”.
‘Acted as a catalyst’
Challenging this judgment, the state government now reiterated its allegations against Khan, asserting that his speech to around 600 students in AMU violated Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, that was imposed in the area.
It also blamed Khan’s speech for the clashes that broke out between the AMU students and the police on 15 December last year.
“Therefore, it is no doubt clear that the speech of Dr. Kafeel acted as a catalyst for others to created a problem of public order and led to mass violence for which it was necessary to detain Dr. Kafeel,” it said.
The petition said that the detention order was therefore passed “after assessing the situation on the ground and taking into consideration the fact that if released, the detenu (Khan) is likely to cause disturbance to public order.”
Additionally, the government attempted to highlight “a continued case of public disorder”, submitting that “detention became necessary on account of continued agitation in Aligarh, even after 15.12.2019” and that “school and colleges have remained closed…women are sitting on dharna”.
“After detenu (Khan) was apprehended and was put behind the bars, the situation started normalizing in Aligarh,” it added.
Also read: ‘Name & shame’ posters, Kafeel Khan case, Hathras — 5 times Allahabad HC pulled up UP govt
shouldnt take leagal action against him? so, you prefer illegal action???