Delhi In a case from 2010 involving their alleged provocative comments, the prosecution of author Arundhati Roy and former University of Kashmir professor Sheikh Showkat Hussain was permitted on Tuesday by Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena. In 2010, the two were charged with making anti-Indian remarks at a lecture in Delhi.
In response to their remarks at the conference ‘Azadi: The Only Way,’ Sushil Pandit and the Kashmiri Pandit group ‘Roots In Kashmir’ filed a complaint against them.
The ‘separation of Kashmir from India’ was allegedly the topic debated and promoted throughout the convention, according to Sushil Pandit. Additionally, it was claimed that the speeches were provocative in nature, endangering the safety and serenity of the general public.
Arundhati Roy and Sheikh Showkat Hussain were accused of violating Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code for their speeches, the Delhi L-G noted.
Although there was evidence of sedition, the L-G did not consent to their prosecution under Section 124A (Sedition) of the IPC since the Supreme Court ordered in May 2022 that all ongoing trials and proceedings involving sedition charges be suspended.
A legitimate sanction for prosecution from the state government is a requirement under Section 196(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) for some offenses, including hate speech, hurting religious sensibilities, hate crimes, sedition, waging war against the state, and fostering enmity, among others.
Sayed Ali Shah Geelani, a leader of the Kashmiri separatist movement, and Syed Abdul Rahman Geelani, a lecturer at Delhi University who was found not guilty by the Supreme Court in the case involving the attack on the Parliament on technical grounds, both away while the case was still pending.
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