Breaking- "Seems Good Order": Supreme Court Refuses To Interfere With Allahabad HC's Order Dropping NSA Charges Against Dr Kafeel Khan

A Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice Bobde on Thursday refused to interfere with Allahabad High Court Order which quashed the detention of Dr.Kafeel Khan under the National Security Act (NSA).

"It seems to be a good order by High Court…We see no reason to interfere with the High Court order," CJI SA Bobde remarked.

He however clarified that the observations in the High Court order shall not affect the prosecution on criminal cases.

The CJI denied Senior Advocate Indira Jaising's request to expunge the above observation that the judgment will not impact criminal prosecution.

He said, "the criminal cases will be decided on their own merits. The observations in a preventive detention judgment cannot impact criminal prosecution."

The UP Government had moved the Top Court, stating that in the impugned order, the Allahabad High Court had "substituted its subjective satisfaction" in place of the authorities view.

The Uttar Pradesh Government has filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court against the September 1 judgment of the Allahabad High Court which quashed the detention of Dr.Kafeel Khan under the National Security Act (NSA).

The petition State of UP and others v Nuzhat Parween(mother of Dr Khan), filed on October 26, is likely to be listed before the Supreme Court on December 17, as per information available from the official website.

A Gorakhpur-based lecturer, Dr. Kafeel Khan was arrested from Mumbai in January 2020, over a speech given on December 13 at the Aligarh Muslim University against the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019.

On a perusal of the record maintained under NSA, the Allahabad High Court concluded that there were no grounds to either detain Khan, let alone to extend such detention twice, as a complete reading of his speech indicated that he 'deprecated any kind of violence'.

The Court noted that the speech actually gave a "call for national integrity and unity". The judgment completely reproduced the speech given by Khan, which was termed "provocative" by the District Magistrate.

"The speaker was certainly opposing the policies of the government and while doing so certain illustration are given by him, but that no where reflects the eventualities demanding detention. A complete reading of the speech primafacie does not disclose any effort to promote hatred or violence. It also no where threatens peace and tranquility of the city of Aligarh. The address gives a call for national integrity and unity among the citizens. The speech also deprecates any kind of violence. It appears that the District Magistrate had selective reading and selective mention for few phrases from the speech ignoring its true intent," the Bench said in its strongly worded Judgment.

The judgment delivered by a bench of Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Saumitra Dayal Singh held that the speech is not such that a reasonable man could have arrive at a conclusion as the inference drawn by the District Magistrate, Aligarh, who passed the detention order against Dr. Khan in February this year.

Accordingly, it has revoked the NSA charges against Dr. Khan; the order of detention dated 13th February, 2020 passed by District Magistrate, Aligarh under the NSA Act and confirmed by the State of Uttar Pradesh has been set aside. The extension of the period of detention of detenue Dr. Kafeel Khan is also declared illegal.

The HC observed that State failed to discharge its burden to establish that KafeelKhan's December speech had "such a deleterious effect on the public order in district-Aligarh as had continued to exist up to 13.02.2020 necessitating preventive detention of the detenue".

Following the High Court order, Dr. Khan was released from Mathura jail on September 2, amid much fanfare.