JNU Action Against Kanhaiya Kumar, Others Put On Hold By High Court

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has stayed all disciplinary action against Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader Kanhaiya Kumar and others for a controversial event in February.

Kanhaiya Kumar had been Rs 10,000 on the recommendation of a university panel that investigated his role in a controversial on campus event in support of terrorist Afzal Guru. Two more students had been removed for two semesters. The students had challenged the punishment in the High Court.

In its verdict today, the High Court stayed the disciplinary action till the students' appeal against the University order is decided by an appellate authority.

However the ruling would not apply to JNU student Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, the court said, till they file an application saying the would appeal against the university's punishment.

Mr Khalid had been fined Rs 20,000 and suspended for a semester by the JNU for "indiscipline". Mr Bhattacharya had been barred from pursuing any course in JNU for the next five years.

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Serving the order, the judge laid the condition that the JNU students' union, which has been on a hunger strike demanding a roll-back of the punishment, withdraw the protest and not launch a new agitation.
 Mr Kumar, along with Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya were arrested days after the event held on February 9 to mark the anniversary of the 2013 hanging of Afzal Guru, during which controversial slogans were raised. They were released on bail a few weeks later.

The university had accused the students of "arousing communal caste feelings, creating disharmony and colluding in the unauthorized entry of outsiders".

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The arrests triggered angry student protests in different parts of the country and pitted the government against opposition parties who alleged a blatant attempt by the ruling BJP to crush dissent and free speech on campuses.

The row intensified after it emerged that the Delhi police had wrongly declared that it had video evidence of Kanhaiya Kumar making incendiary remarks against India. It was later alleged that the slogans were raised by "outsiders".

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After his release in March, Mr Kumar made a forceful speech in which he called for "Azaadi" (freedom) within India. In the past few weeks, he has toured universities where he has repeatedly attacked the government for what he describes as its divisive policies.