AGRA/LUCKNOW: The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed an appeal by the Uttar Pradesh government against the Allahabad high court order that had quashed Dr Kafeel Khan’s detention under the National Security Act (NSA) in September.
"We see no reason to interfere," a three-judge bench of Chief Justice of India S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian said. Criminal cases against Khan will be decided "on their own merits", the bench added.
Khan had been held at Mathura jail for seven months after he delivered a speech during the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act at Aligarh Muslim University which the government deemed "provocative". The high court had, while allowing his release, observed that his speech does not "disclose any effort to promote hatred or violence". It, instead, "gives a call for national integrity and unity… (and) deprecates any kind of violence".