Delhi HC adjourns hearing of Umar Khalid’s petition for protection to surrender

In a day of great frenzy at the Delhi High Court, the court room of Justice Pratibha Rani saw two petitions on an issue that has been been dominating headlines for the past few weeks..JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya moved the High Court yesterday, seeking security before they surrendered to the police under the sedition case registered against them..A Division Bench of Justices BD Ahmed and RK Gauba, before whom the matter was mentioned, had agreed to list the plea for an urgent hearing..When the matter came up before Court 29 at 4 pm, the Bench proposed Khalid & Bhattacharya to surrender at a place of their choice, which was opposed by the Delhi Police. Thereafter, the Bench adjourned the matter for tomorrow without passing any interim orders in the case..While these two students had sought for police protection, three other students namely Ashutosh Kumar, Rama Naga and Anant Prakash Narayan had also approached the High Court for obtaining anticipatory bail..These five students had been missing from the JNU campus from February 12 after JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested in a sedition case. Kumar’s bail plea is slated to be heard today in the High Court..Meanwhile, another petition was filed in the High Court seeking the ‘immediate arrest’ of these five students. This petition sought the Court’s directions to allow the Delhi Police to enter JNU and arrest the students. .The petition mentioned by Senior Advocate Adish C Aggarwala and advocate V K Anand earlier in the day, had also sought action against the faculty members of the University for allegedly trying to “obstruct the process of administration of criminal justice system and assisting for violation of law of lands.” This petition was dismissed by Justice Pratibha Rani.