ON JULY 20, the student protest march, which coincided with the first day of the Parliament’s Monsoon Session, at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi turned into a site of heavy police crackdown on the protesting students. The internet was flooded with visuals of the Delhi Police and the Rapid Action Force (‘RAF’) brutally beating and tear-gassing protesting students. Many were left bleeding. Instances of use of pellet guns and shock batons were also reported widely across national media platforms.
Chief Justice of India (‘CJI’) Surya Kant, while declining to take suo moto cognisance, orally remarked that it would be a “waste” of the Supreme Court’s time to look into the crackdown, even as lawyers pressed with videos of police atrocities against the protesters. “We are not interested in videos. We don’t have time to watch them,” the Chief Justice said.
The Delhi High Court, however, has issued notice to the Centre and the Delhi Police on two public interest litigations flagging the use of tear gas, lathi charges and other excesses at the protest. A bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia observed that the complaints were not about “isolated” incidents and sought a response from the police. During the hearing, the advocates for the petitioners argued that there was no evidence that protesters had turned violent, and that over 90 students had suffered injuries and pressed for an FIR against the policemen identified in the videos.
