Above: Kanhaiya Kumar (file pic)

The Delhi High Court on Friday (July 22) set aside a JNU order imposing Rs 10,000 fine on former JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar holding it as “illegal, irrational and of procedural impropriety”.

The court was acting on the plea filed by Kumar challenging a JNU order imposing a fine of Rs 10,000 against him.

The single-judge bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul further directed the JNU to give Kumar a proper hearing.

Consequently, the bench also sought reply from the central varsity on a petition filed by JNU student Umar Khalid who also challenged JNU order imposing a fine on him in the same episode in which Kumar was fined.

The bench listed the matter for next hearing to July 24.

During the course of proceedings, the petitioner said that he was slapped with a fine without being given proper hearing by the JNU authorities and was held guilty.

It may be recalled that Kumar along with Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, were booked under the Sedition charges in the February 2016 episode in which a group of young men allegedly raised
“anti-national” slogans in the varsity campus.

—India Legal Bureau