An Allahabad High Court bench comprising Justices Umesh Chandra Srivastava and Ramesh Sinha has “restrained” a Gorakhpur court from passing any order on the closure report in the 2007 hate speech case, in which UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had been named.
The order was passed on May 11, the day the state government informed the court that it will not allow the prosecution of the Chief Minister and others named as accused.
The HC bench also asked the Chief Secretary to submit details of the status of all 29 cases which were registered in connection with the incidents of communal violence that occurred on January 27, 2007, in Gorakhpur.
“As it is apparent from record that 29 criminal cases, including the present case, were registered with respect to the incident dated 27.1.2007 in district Gorakhpur where communal riots broke out… as there has been a loss of lives and properties of the public at large, we direct the Chief Secretary of the state to file status of all those cases till date through a detailed comparative chart,” the order said.
The court also directed that “This court is considering the prayer made in the present petition and further examining the validity of refusal of grant of sanction of the accused… we restrain the concerned court below from passing any order on the final report… till disposal of the present petition.”
The next hearing of the case is scheduled for July 7.
