The much-awaited hearing on the JNU row in which its Students’ Union leader Kanhaiya Kumar has been arrested on sedition charges witnessed a flurry of activity in the Delhi High Court on Tuesday where three separate courts dealt with the related petitions.
A jostling crowd of onlookers, litigants and the media was seen moving from one court to another during the day amid unprecedented security arrangements within and outside the High Court premises. The centre of these developments was court number 29 where a Bench of Justice Pratibha Rani took up Kanhaiya’s bail plea for hearing at 10.30 am.
Simultaneously, two separate petitions, one by other two accused Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya and another seeking arrest of other five accused students were mentioned in court number two at 10.30 am before a division Bench headed by Justice BD Ahmed which agreed to hear these pleas during the day itself.
Elaborate security arrangements were in place outside court number 29 where a metal detector was installed at the entrance. When Kanhaiya’s bail plea came up for hearing, only the concerned advocates and seven journalists were allowed to remain present inside the courtroom.
As the hearing of the bail plea concluded around 10.40 am, focus shifted to court number two where these two pleas were mentioned.
After lunch, the petition of Khalid and Bhattacharya came up for hearing before Justice Pratibha Rani at 4 pm.
As the argument was going on, the petition seeking a direction to police to arrest the five students — Khalid, Bhattacharya, Anant Prakash Narayan, Ashutosh Kumar and Rama Naga - came up for hearing at court number 10 before Justice Manmohan at 4.30 pm.
While Justice Pratibha Rani posted hearing on Kanhaiya”s bail plea and petitions of Khalid and Bhattacharya for Wednesday, another application was dismissed as withdrawn.