Defending its decision to deny sanction for prosecuting Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in a 2007 hate speech case, the state government on Monday told the Supreme Court that the Allahabad High Court had found there was no illegality in the decision. “The High Court has observed after going through the original records that… there is no illegality,” the state said in an affidavit filed in the apex court. Advertising The affidavit said the case was investigated by the Crime Branch CID and that “after analysing complete records and in the light of the legal opinion received, the Home Department, Government of Uttar Pradesh reached the decision that there is no justification to grant sanction for prosecution. Accordingly, the CBCID closed the case.” “The order of the sanctioning authority”, the government said, “was based upon opinion received by the Law Department stating that in the absence of the evidence, there is no justification to grant prosecution…” The top court was hearing a petition by Parwej Parvaz, a UP resident, challenging the February 2018 High Court order upholding the state’s decision to deny sanction to prosecute Adityanath. It was on Parvaz’s plea that an FIR was lodged in 2008 against Adityanath, who was then a member of Parliament. Advertising Replying to his plea, the state told the apex court that the petition “has suppressed that the DVD given to the investigating authority was made after years of the alleged incident, which was found as a tampered DVD in the FSL report”. The petitioner questioned the Home Department’s May 3, 2017 decision to deny prosecution, saying the department was under the CM who could not be a “judge in his own cause”.

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