Why NSA on YouTuber, SC asks Tamil Nadu government
The Hindu
The Supreme Court on April 21 found the Bihar and Tamil Nadu governments on the same page against a proposal to club multiple FIRs against YouTuber Manish Kashyap and transfer all of them to Bihar.
The Supreme Court on April 21 found the Bihar and Tamil Nadu governments on the same page against a proposal to club multiple FIRs against YouTuber Manish Kashyap and transfer all of them to Bihar.
Mr. Kashyap is accused of spreading misinformation that migrant workers from Bihar were attacked in Tamil Nadu. He has urged the top court to transfer FIRs registered in various parts of Tamil Nadu against him to Patna in Bihar.
Appearing before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, the Bihar Government counsel agreed with senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who represented Tamil Nadu, that the FIRs registered against Mr. Kashyap concerned different acts and cannot be combined into one investigation.
The Bihar Government counsel even said Mr. Kashyap was a “habitual offender” and had eight cases against him in the State.
Mr. Sibal explained that the FIRs in Tamil Nadu concerned Mr. Kashyap’s alleged activities when he visited various parts of the State in the guise of interviewing people. Multiple FIRs could be registered in the State as each of them concerned a different act of the man.
However, the court questioned the Tamil Nadu Government about the invocation of the National Security Act (NSA) against Mr. Kashyap, represented by senior advocate Siddharth Dave. Mr. Dave said, at this point, he actually did not even know the whereabouts of his client.
Mr. Sibal responded that the man was lodged in the Madurai Central Prison. “But why NSA, Mr. Sibal?” the Chief Justice asked.
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.