The right to protest peacefully and lawfully is protected by the Constitution and the police cannot baton protesters on the mere pretext of a movement, Chief Justice of India Surya Kant made a landmark oral observation. A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Jayamalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohan while hearing a series of petitions filed in the Supreme Court observed that the police used excessive force against students protesting against the leak of examination papers across the country.
Allegations of police misconduct should be investigated independently, the bench said. The bench stressed the need for the police to have a clear and consistent protocol for controlling protests and agitations across the country. The Chief Justice said the right to peaceful protest is guaranteed in the Constitution and as long as the movement is peaceful the police cannot resort to brutality. In this context, Justice Bagchi remarked that injury to any person, be it a policeman or a student, is equally worrisome. He verbally said the court may seek an answer from the state government as to why the police are not being provided with adequate protective equipment including helmets to control the agitation.
A petition filed through advocate Chand Qureshi sought directions to regulate police activity during public protests. The petition demanded an independent inquiry into the role of police during the July 20 student protests in Delhi and a ban on the deployment of plainclothes police to control crowds. In another petition filed by advocate Shailendra Mani Tripathi against the Government of India, the Delhi government and the Delhi Police Commissioner, students marched in Parliament demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on July 20. The petition alleged that at least 60 protesters were injured when police fired tear gas, pellet guns and baton charges at peaceful protesters.
The complainants also alleged that metro services and internet shutdown during the agitation disrupted the daily life of common commuters, office goers and patients. The petition questioned the frequent application of Section 163 of the Civil Protection Code of India and Section 152 of the Justice Code of India. The use of police without identity cards or in plain clothes against protesters violates the Supreme Court’s earlier directives in the DK Bose and Somnath cases, it said. Therefore, an independent judicial commission or a special investigation team headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court has been demanded to investigate the entire incident.
The Supreme Court also allowed a lawyer appearing for the families of policemen injured during the protest to participate in the hearing. The next joint hearing of all the petitions related to the entire case related to police action and students’ rights will be held in the Supreme Court tomorrow.