Kochi: The state government has informed the Kerala High Court that it will speed up action to quash the cases related to protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. Though the government had issued an order to withdraw these cases, no action was taken to implement it yet.
A total of seven people had approached the High Court seeking intervention to quash the cases. The court had asked the government to give an explanation for the delay in quashing these cases. In response to this, the government has decided to initiate action.
2cManorama News reported that the High Court has ordered the government to file a plea before magistrate courts to close these cases against the people who participated in the anti-CAA protests.
As per the official data, a total of 835 cases including 103 criminal cases were registered in Kerala over the protests in 2020. However, the government submitted petitions to close legal proceedings against the protesters in only 63 cases.
The state government has been under fire for not withdrawing the cases as Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had promised to quash all non-serious cases related to the protest during the election campaign in 2021. Many activists and politicians of major political parties are named as accused in these cases.
