Court quashes order to conduct polygraph test on JNU students

NSUI members stage a protest outside Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s residence (Representational). (Express Photo by Amit Mehra)

A sessions court on Wednesday quashed a magistrate court order that had asked nine Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students to appear before it to record their consent or refusal to undergo a lie detector test in connection with the case of missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmad.

The Metropolitan Magistrate order was passed on March 30, but was stayed by a sessions court on April 6. Additional Sessions Judge Siddharth Sharma quashed the order saying, “I am of the considered opinion that as per the law laid down (by a Supreme Court judgment) regarding lie detector test, it is imperative that there should not be any inducement or threat or misrepresentation and such consent have been voluntarily given without any pressure from the side of investigating agency.”

The sessions judge added that the investigating officer shall be at liberty to issue fresh notice, if he wants, under the guidelines established by the Supreme Court and NHRC.

On March 30, the students’ plea had been dismissed in Metropolitan Magistrate court, in which they had claimed that they cannot be asked by the Delhi Police to give their consent for lie detector test.