HC quashes NSA against Tiwari

OBJECTIONABLE REMARKS AGAINST THE PROPHET

THE LUCKNOW Bench of the Allahabad High Court Friday quashed the imposition of the National Security Act (NSA) against self-proclaimed working president of Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha Kamlesh Tiwari, whose alleged derogatory remarks against Prophet Muhammad had created resulted in massive protests across the country.

A division bench of justices Shri Narayan Shukla and Anant Kumar passed the order while hearing habeas corpus filed by Kamlesh’s wife Kiran Tiwari. Tiwari (43) is lodged at Lucknow district jail since his arrest on December 2 last year.

The detention order against Tiwari was issued by the District Magistrate, Lucknow, on December 9, 2015. The UP Advisory Board approved invoking of NSA against him in February.

Tiwari’s lawyer H S Jain submitted that the government could extend the period of detention for 12 months, “but only after the review of opinion every three months”. But in the present case, the government “through its order dated January 29, 2016, on the basis of report of the Advisory Board, extended the period of detention for 12 months from the date of detention i.e. December 9, 2015 at a time, which cannot not be done,” Jain told the court.

The court in its order stated that “no extension of detention period” can be exceeded beyond three months at one time. “Thus... the confirmation of Advisory Board does not empower the state government to extend the detention order at a stretch for 12 months,” it said.

Stating that “the petitioner’s detention under the custody of Superintendent of District Jail, Lucknow” was thus “unlawful”, the court quashed the order passed by the Lucknow DM last year.

Tiwari had issued a statement slamming senior Samajwadi Party leader and UP minister Azam Khan for his comment against the RSS and had also allegedly made objectionable remarks against the Prophet on November 30. Two days later, he posted allegedly inflammatory comments on Facebook while reacting to protests by Muslims on his statement.

PUNJAB