The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the arrest of the Principal of Indore’s Government New Law College on Friday, in connection with an FIR registered against him over a controversial book found in the library of the College.
The Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice P.S. Narasimha further issued notice on the complaint filed by a third year LLM student of the college.
Advocates Aljo K Joseph and Abhinav P Dhanodkar, representing the petitioner and now resigned Principal Dr. Inamur Rahman, submitted that the book in question was published in 2014 and purchased by the college in the same year.
The Counsels contended that the petitioner was a Professor in the College at that time and not the Principal.
The Bench, while observing that this was not a case for arrest, issued notice returnable in the third week of January, 2023.
An LLM student had filed a complaint over the book Collective Violence And Criminal Justice System, written by Dr Farhat Khan (Accused 1) and published by Amar Law Publications (Accused 4). The FIR was registered on the basis of this complaint.
The petitioner has been arrayed as Accused 2.
As per the complaint by the LLM student, the book was based on false and baseless facts, was anti-national in nature, and intended to harm the public peace, integrity and religious cordiality of the country.
The petition said that the case was lodged for political reasons and that the petitioner, who was not involved in the publication or marketing of the book, was unnecessarily dragged in the case.
He further stated that the book was purchased not during the tenure of the petitioner, but way back in 2014, when he was merely a professor and not involved in the of buying books for the college library.
The petitioner said that he resigned as Principal after protests by the ABVP.
On December 15, the Madhya Pradesh High Court had refused to grant interim anticipatory bail to Rahman. The former Principal moved the Apex Court against this judgment.