Gujarat High Court refuses to take cognizance of attack on foreign students

The Gujarat High Court on Monday refused to take suo motu cognizance of the attack on foreign national students of the Gujarat University, who were assaulted while they were offering prayers (Namaz) on Saturday night in their hostel. .A division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha Mayee turned down the request made by advocate KR Koshti, who urged the bench to take suo motu cognizance of the incident. The bench said that the High Court cannot take over the role of police."Not everything incident in this city can be a PIL matter. Everything happening in this city cannot be considered under PIL jurisdiction. Please do not make us (judges) inspectors or investigating officers. We have our Police force to look into the issue. We are a court and not an investigation agency," the Chief Justice observed. However, Koshti insisted the Court to take up the matter stating that the Police is not properly investigating the case as it has not invoked several important and serious provisions in its First Information Report (FIR). "But for that Mr counsel, you have other legal remedies. Please go and exhaust those remedies. You please don't make us an investigating agency. If certain provisions aren't incorporated (in the FIR) then there is a remedy available to you. Sorry, we can't take cognizance like this," the Chief Justice underscored. Further, Koshti again urged the bench saying that it was a constitutional court, which has jurisdiction over matter of public importance. "Thank you for reminding us that we are constitutional courts Mr Counsel. But we are aware we are sitting in our constitutional jurisdiction and we know when to exercise our powers and when not," Chief Justice Agarwal said while refusing to take cognizance of the incident. .According to Indian Express, around 20 persons, sloganeering 'Jai Shri Ram' had barged into the boys hostel of Gujarat University on March 16 and allegedly stopped Muslim students from African nations, Afghanistan and other countries from offering Namaaz in the hostel premises.Initially, there was an altercation between a few of the attackers and the foreign students. However, it turned violent and a mob of nearly 20 persons entered the campus and chased the foreign students till their rooms and even vandalised their bikes, laptops etc. At least five students were injured in the incident with two of them suffering severe injuries leading to hospitalisation. Following the incident, the Gujarat Police arrested two persons.