Supreme Court asks Akbar Lone to file affidavit owing allegiance to Constitution

The issue was raised by an NGO called ‘Roots in Kashmir’, which told a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud that after raising the slogans in the Assembly, Lone had later said that he stood by his remarks.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre and the J&K administration, said the MP should file an affidavit stating “I (Lone) owe allegiance to the Constitution of India” and “oppose and object to terrorism and any secessionist activity by Pakistan in J&K or elsewhere”.

Taking exception to the MP’s reported remarks, the CJI told Sibal: “When he invokes the jurisdiction of our court under Article 32 of the Constitution, he therefore necessarily abides by and owes allegiance to the Constitution… we want to have it from him that he unconditionally accepts that J&K is an integral part of India and that he abides by and owes allegiance to Constitution of India”.

“(Lone) is a Member of Parliament today. He is sworn to the Constitution of India. He is a citizen of India. How can he say otherwise? And if anybody has said it, I, at my level, deprecate it,” Sibal replied, adding that the court could ask him to file an affidavit stating that he had “nothing to do with it”.

Intervening, Mehta said: “He is your client. You must tell him to say that I do not subscribe to terrorism and secessionism.”

“When you argue and you accept the sovereignty of people of India and that J&K is an integral part of India, and your client says something outside the court, something different, there is contradiction… probably then he is also accepting there was an issue and a problem which had to be dealt with,” said Justice Sanjeev Khanna, who was part of the Bench that also included Justices S K Kaul, B R Gavai and Surya Kant.

“If I start recounting, it will only unnecessarily lead to media coverage. Let’s not go there. We are arguing a pure constitutional issue… There is a Speaker of the BJP who was present there when this allegedly happened. There are some people who asked him to say something which he did not say. Why do you want me to go into all this,” said Sibal.

Sibal added that whatever Lone said was “not part of the record. It is withdrawn. It has been deleted from the record… It was said in the Assembly, the BJP Speaker was there, and he was asked to say something which people ask other people to say on the streets of this country. Why do we want to go into this?”

Mehta, however, insisted that “we must go into it”.

“We… proceed on the basis that he is willing to file an affidavit before our court saying he owes allegiance like every other Indian citizen to the Constitution of India and that J&K is an integral part of India,” the CJI said.

“Of course, My Lords,” responded Sibal.

Referring to the NGO’s plea, Mehta said it stated that “in all public speeches… he (Lone) supports separatist and other elements… Let him (Lone) say he does not support secessionism and terrorism. No citizen of this country can have any objection in filing that”.

Sibal said he was also representing another petitioner and should be allowed to argue for him. “You want to take any action against the gentleman, take action. Please don’t derail a purely legal submission,” he said.

The CJI then said: “We will hear you for Mr Lone as well. There’s no difficulty. He has come to our court. We are more than duty bound to hear his submissions. And we are in the course of hearing his submissions. All that we want to say is that everyone else here… because we have had people from across the political spectrum in J&K, who have presented rival viewpoints, different perspectives which is welcome. That’s why we are here to resolve those issues. But all of them have come here in one spirit, which is that they abide by the integrity of India.”

“You cannot be a member of Lok Sabha without abiding by the Constitution… the oath of office (says) that he will abide by the Constitution of India. He has to take that oath before he enters Lok Sabha,” said Sibal.

“Tomorrow, just ask him to file a one-page affidavit. That’s all that is necessary,” the CJI said.

Attorney General R Venkatramani said Lone was seeking to enforce his fundamental right, but was not willing to subscribe to the Constitution.

“Everybody has fundamental rights in this country, including those who you vilify on the streets,” responded Sibal.