New Delhi, Aug 26 : The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed an appeal over the denial of the authority to pursue Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in an alleged hate-speech case.A court headed by Chief Justice N.V.Ramana dismissed an appeal seeking a denial of sanctions for the investigation of CM Yogi in a 2007 alleged racist speech he delivered in Gorakhpur.
On August 24 the Supreme Court reserved its order on a complaint against the Allahabad High Court judgment in an instance of an alleged hatred speech of 2007.
During the hearing the an advocate senior Mukul Rohatgi, representing Uttar Pradesh government, had argued before an apex court led by Chief Justice N.V.Ramana that nothing remains in the case.The CD was handed over to the CFSL which was found to have been altered with.He claimed that the issue raised in the petition has been reviewed by the High Court.
He concluded, “You cannot go on beating a dead horse after 15 years simply because the person who is CM happens to be CM today”.
In February 2018 the high court stated that it could not discover any error in procedure in the decision-making procedure of refusing to issue sanction to prosecute.
The petitioners Parvez Parwaz and others had filed a petition to the top court challenging the high court’s decision.
The bench, which also includes Justices Hima Kohli and C.T.Ravikumar The bench told the petitioners lawyer that if there was no criminal investigation, what is the issue of sanction.
Advocate Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi, a lawyer for the petitioners, raised the issue as one of the issues raised in the court’s decision.It states: “Whether the state can issue an order pursuant to section 196 of the CrPC in regard of an accused who is proposed in the course of a criminal investigation that in the meantime is elected the position of Chief Minister and becomes the executive head according to the procedure laid out in Article 163 of the Constitution.” Ayyubi said that the high court did not decide on the issue and added that , due to the decision to deny the grant of the sanction for prosecution, a closing report was filed.
The court told counsel for the petitioners ‘the sanction is only a matter of time in the event of any case and if there’s no case whatsoever then what is the issue of sanctions’.
Rohatgi claimed in 2008 the petitioner presented an audio CD that was damaged, and after five years, he offered a second CD, which claimed to contain the hate speech.However, it was found to have been tampered with, he said.
A case was brought against Yogi Adityanath, who was then an MP, and a number of others, on the alleged charge of inciting enmity between two parties at the police station in Gorakhpur.
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