Rebecca John wins respite for Kanhaiya Kumar as Delhi HC sets aside penalty

The Delhi High Court yesterday gave some respite to former President of the JNU Student’s Union Kanhaiya Kumar by setting aside an order which had imposed a penalty of Rs. 10,000 on him in relation with the alleged sloganeering and connected events of February 2, 2016 at the JNU Campus..Kumar and others had challenged the order of the Appellate Authority which had upheld the order of imposition of penalty by a High Level Enquiry Committee (HLEC) set up by the Vice-Chancellor of the University..The grounds of challenge to the order of penalty, among others, were that the enquiry was conducted without the petitioner’s presence as he was in judicial custody during the period, and that the petitioner was not given the relevant materials on the basis of which he was punished, or the due opportunity to rebut the said materials, which was in violation of the principles of natural justice..Appearing for the petitioner, Senior Advocate Rebecca John submitted that the entire proceedings of the High Level Enquiry Committee (HLEC) stood vitiated as Kumar was not served a notice of the enquiry against him. Further, the terms of reference of the HLEC were not disclosed to Kumar, and that the notice pasted on his hostel room directing him to appear before the HLEC was not legally tenable for want of material particulars. John also argued that Kumar was not given an opportunity to make a defence before the HLEC..It was futher submitted by John that the Appellate Committee itself failed toobserve the principles of natural justice due to the following:.It failed to provide the Petitioner with the physical copies of all statements and evidence collected by the HLEC and consequently relied upon by the Appellate Committee.It failed to provide him an opportunity to cross-examine the relevant witnesses, or to lead evidence in his defence.The appellate hearing was conducted by the Committee as a cross-questioning session, which was presumptive of his guilt.The Appellate Committee deliberately did not give him sufficient time to peruse the voluminous documents and depositions collected by the HLEC, to deny him the opportunity to counter the allegations against him.The two statements of witnesses relied upon by the Appellate Committee were not supplied to the Petitioner and do not form part of the paperbook..Appearing for JNU, Advocate Ginny Routray submitted that the petitioner was given ample opportunities to appear and depose before the Enquiry Committee with liberty to adduce any material and evidence in his defense both at the stage of enquiry and appeal. She further submitted that Kumar himself had failed to come forward and make his statement before the said forum..While remanding the matter back to the Appellate Authority, the Single Judge Bench of Justice V Kameswar Rao directed the Authority to grant Kumar the opportunity to inspect records of the HLEC and other material..The Court also stated that the petitioner shall not indulge in any strike, dharna agitation, or coercive action in the future in connection with the issue, till such time the proceedings between the parties attain finality..Read the judgment:.Image taken from here.